And Fruitcake for Breakfast
by Revharem
Summary: Gaster Sans Jr tries to make his way through life in NYC when a woman reappears in his life from before his past got dark. Now he has to choose between staying safe and secure or taking a chance and possibly losing everything for the one he loves.
1. Age 7

3rd POV

A sheet of pure white covered the park landscape, glittering in the midafternoon sun. Beyond the trees, the city traffic could be heard, but within it was an untouched winter wonderland to the eyes of the two children who had run ahead of their parents in their excitement. This was the first real snowfall they had received this year and the snow was several inches deep and packed hard under their feet as they rushed over the covered pathways. The human girl pulled ahead as they raced toward the center of the park, only to stop and spin in place, falling back into an embankment on the side and start making a snow angel giggling.

As the young skeleton boy caught up, he leaned on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Grinning, he leaned down and clumped some snow on the path together, forming a snowball. The gloves his dad had forced him to wear proved helpful as whenever he had tried making them back home, the snow would fall through the holes in his palms when he tried to pack it.

The girl was starting to pull herself out of the snow angel she had made and as she stepped back from her art to view it, the snowball met the back of her head, making her squeal and turn. "G! No fair!" she called out, stooping to make her own snowball even as the skeleton child doubled over laughing. She pouted and glared, then pulled back and whipped her own snowball, nailing G's skull and knocking him on his butt and his hat off his head.

"Hey!" he laughed. A battle of snowballs ensued as they chased each other around for another half hour or so.

By this time, their respective parents had made it into the park and smiled as they watched the children play.

"Clara is really going to miss playing with him. Maybe when we get to Arizona we can send you a post card and they can be pen pals or something?" Jenny, Clara's mother, suggested, looking sadly over to Gaster.

'That sounds like an amazing idea' Gaster signed. While he was capable of speech, it was a hard strain for him. Jenny had worked under him for almost ten years and while he was sad to see her go, her fiancé had managed to land a spectacular job down in Phoenix, so she was moving to their branch out there to be with him. 'It will be hard to find a replacement for you. You're abilities have made work much easier these past years.'

"Oh, Gaster, drop the drama, you'll be fine. You managed before me." She laughed him off.

The children had moved on to working on building a snowman. Having finished the bottom two balls, which had proven to be quite large, they were now fighting with the head, which was larger than either child could manage to lift. G turned and ran back to his father.

"Hey dad, is alright if I use my magic to put the head on just this once?" he begged.

'Just this once, and only to move the head, no more. Understand?' Gaster signed. His son was still learning sign language, but he had a good grasp since he had to deal with it daily with his father.

"Thanks dad!" he grabbed Gaster's waist in a quick hug, then dashed back out to help with the snowman as Gaster just laughed.

Once back out to the snowman, Clara asked, "Well, what'd he say?!"

"Nothing. Dad don't speak, you know that, but he gave me permission to use my magic!" he laughed, bouncing as he told her. He was rarely allowed to use his magic due to how strong it already was. His dad didn't want him to become dependent on it.

"Bonehead, you know what I meant!" she laughed. "Is there any way I can help?"

"I got this, besides, I don't know if humans can touch our magic. Dad never lets me use it around humans so I think that it can be dangerous. You should stand back." He mused, then waved her back.

"Okay." She hop-skipped back a few paces and watched as one of Gaster Jr.'s eyes lit up orange with an outline of purple and the other disappeared altogether. Her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth in awe as the large head they had rolled together was suddenly enveloped with the same colors and floated to set atop their snowman, finishing the creation. The second the magic disappeared, she rushed forward, hugging G and planting a kiss on the side of his skull. "He just needs some rock buttons and eyes now! Let's go get them!" and she took off.

In the bright glare off the snow, the white glow that came off Gaster Jr. was almost impossible to see, but Gaster and Jenny were just able to make it out and they both laughed amongst themselves at the antics of their children. They stayed at the park for another hour or so, before calling the children to start going home.

"Clara, say goodbye to Gaster and Mr. Sans. We won't be seeing them for a long time, remember." Jenny told her daughter.

G looked up surprised, first to Jenny then to his father. "Did we do something wrong? Is that why we won't be able to see each other?" he asked.

Gaster and Jenny shared a concerned glance. They hadn't realized that Clara hadn't told him that they were leaving. Just as they were about to try to explain, Clara stepped forward. "Mommy and me are going to live with Daddy down in Arizona. I'm sure we'll be able to visit sometimes, right Mommy?" she asked, turning to look at her mother.

"Well, Arizona is very far away Clara. We probably won't be able to come up to visit very often, if at all. I told Mr. Sans that we'd send him a card with our new address when we got there so that you and G can write to each other to keep in touch." She explained gently.

"You mean that I won't be able to play with him anymore?" Clara asked, eyes going wide as she started to understand what her mother had been telling her for the past two months. She gripped his arm, pulling him closer to her, not wanting to lose her best friend.

"I'm afraid so dear. But you'll still be able to talk to him on the phone and write to him whenever you want. I promise." Her mother smiled encouragingly.

G suddenly piped up. "We'll be like those kids in that book we were reading. The ones who lived on opposite sides of a country and wrote to each other and ended up being friends forever and meeting at the museum. Remember?" he was excited to have a pen pal.

"I guess. Okay. You had better write me every day!" she demanded, poking his chest, pushing him back a step.

"Yeah, and you too." He laughed.

The rest of the walk home they talked about what they would write to each other excitedly, constantly conferring with their parents on what they could include. When the time came to part, they gave each other hugs and parted ways.

The letters went back and forth for almost two years before they started to peter out and finally come to an end as the children grew up and apart into their own individual lives.


	2. Age 15

1st POV

Gaster Sans Jr

Looking behind me, the coast looked clear, so I nonchalantly walked up to the door of the condo with the address I was supposed to be delivering to. It looked just like all the others on the block. A blue door, two windows to either side of the door and three stories up, built of gray brick. A few windows had flowers, or decorative curtains inside, but that was all the difference between them all. That and the gold number plates that defined the addresses. I pushed the pearl colored doorbell button and waited for the door to unlock so I could drop my load for this location and move on to the next. Being a drug runner was nerve racking and boring at the same time and often left me in the cold if the people where not where they said they'd be. It was rare that the receiver wasn't home as they wanted the drugs they ordered, but it did happen and was annoying. When after five minutes and ten more rings didn't unlock the door, I figured that was what had happened here, so turned and started my walk across town.

Dad said that driving a car to delivery locations would attract more attention and walking was healthier in any case, so I got stuck walking all over the worst parts of the city at all hours. It paid well at least, so maybe I'd be able to skip town after a few more years and start a new life somewhere else.

Finding out that my father, once a head secretary at a multibillion dollar corporation, was also a gang leader had come as quite a shock. Being forcefully recruited even more so. He had always seemed to be such a caring person, and even now he did seem to care about my well-being on occasion, but as time went, it became more about the money, and less about personal happiness. I had been forced to drop out of high school to keep up with my duties as a grunt in the gang. Dad said that the more I dedicated, the more I would move up and that the gang was family and would take care of us. I had my doubts.

Moving on autopilot, I didn't realize until too late that the alley I had stepped into had some punks on the end I was headed for. Thinking to just turn around and find another route, I was met with another group. This couldn't be coincidence, but I figured I'd just keep my cool and try to walk past the group at the end, but as I approached, they stood and blocked the way.

"What do we have here? Some voiceless freak's brat a little out of his turf, huh?" one of the men taunted.

I gritted my teeth. Dad had forced me to wear certain items that made it impossible to use my magic, so it was just my physical strength against seven human thugs. I was so dust.

"I think he lost his tongue too, Jermy. He can't even respond." Raucous laughter followed from the group at the quip issued from behind me.

"I'm just passing through. I wouldn't be here if people higher up hadn't told me to. I know the lines." I growled out. I knew talking would only aggravate them, but I could only handle so much bashing of my dad.

"Huh, the dead guy speaks." The first guy, Jermy, spoke again. "Well, you see mister dead guy, just like you, we are following higher people, and those people say that we gotta beat you up good and take your goods. It's nothing personal, just business. I know you'll understand." He was grinning, obviously enjoying his task much more than I was about to.

"How about I just give you the goods and we say that you beat me. Your people don't know mine, so it wouldn't make much of a difference, right?" I tried.

"Ha, nice joke. I'm not just doing this cause I was told to. I honestly enjoy beating you freaks to a pulp. This is gonna be fun." He looked to his cronies. "Grab him." He snarled.

Well, at least it looked like I was only going to get beat by one person, that made it slightly better. Maybe I would live through this beating. I normally was more alert and that was why I got the more dangerous and expensive routes as I could dodge groups like this before they could corner me.

Three pairs of gloved hands grabbed me roughly from behind. Naturally I flinched away from the coarse handling. The excruciating pain that blew up behind my head had my knees going out. Through the haze of pain I only just saw the fist with a large ring swinging towards my face. I tried to turn away, but was too slow. It blew another flare of pain, and I couldn't stop the scream that tore from me as the metal slammed into my cheek. I could feel my suppressed magic trying to rise, turning my stomach. Distantly I heard them laugh. Just as I was starting to think that they were going to stop with that since it had been a minute or two since the second hit, and I was starting to black out, I felt the hands holding up my arms tighten and a heavy boot slammed into my lower ribs. The sound of breaking bone rang loudly.

Dimly I heard one of the guys say something. Then the Jermy kid spoke up again. Him I could make out. "You're all a bunch of wimps. If he can't handle a few hits, what good is he anyway." I felt a piece of round metal forced under my chin, likely a pipe or something, but I was losing the battle for consciousness. "Huh, looks like he's already out. Hope his father's happy with this. I ain't chancing being a murderer cause he blacked out and already looks dead. I don't care how much the bastard payed. Grab the drugs, we're getting outta here." I felt my arms ripped back as my bag was ripped off from behind me, probably dislocated a shoulder as I felt a twinge from there and finally passed out.

When I finally came to, I felt a couple different weights on my back and the back of my legs. My head was pounding so bad I could hardly think, and laying prone on the ground as I was, weight was on the rib or ribs that had been broken or cracked. I tried to push myself up, only for a sharp pain to shoot down my left arm and through my ring and pinky fingers. Gritting my teeth, which only increased the pain in my skull, I forced my body up with just my right arm, dragging my legs forward to shift back on them, letting the bags of trash that had been thrown over me fall away. Struggling to look around, I didn't see anybody in the alley, but it had gotten very dark so I likely wouldn't have seen anyone anyway. Forcing myself to my feet unsteadily, I had to wait for the world to stop spinning. Getting home was bound to be interesting if I couldn't get a ride. I just hoped I still had my wallet. Looking down to my shoes, I couldn't believe they were so far away. The thought of trying to check the hidden chamber in the small heel was nauseating, but I had to. I would never make it home in my state. Leaning against one of the brick walls of the alley, I lifted my foot and reached with my good hand, the strain making my ribs flair and in turn, my head even more, but I pushed through. In the end it was worth it. Fifty bucks, that would get me where I was going with a little extra. Keeping it gripped in my hand, which I shoved into my pocket, I started my staggering toward the end of the alley, to a higher traffic street. To my luck, there was a bus stop just beyond it and a bus just happened to be stopping. I waved my hand, hoping to get their attention since there was nobody at the stop. The lights flashed, blinding me and making me stagger back, collapsing. I heard a scream that may have been mine before I passed out again.

When I came to again, sounds were fading in and out fast, too bright lights were flashing all around me, and strange, piercing smells permeated the air. I couldn't feel anything, it was like I was floating and it scared me. The last time I'd been floating, Dad had been about to beat me for spilling ten grams of coke. He'd ended up chipping a lumbar vertebrae and left me to heal on my own. That was two years ago, but I remembered it clearly and started to struggle. Noises suddenly increased around me, making me struggle even more. Something was forced against my face, a searing pain raced through my eye and I was out again.

A faint blipping sound slowly permeated the darkness and brought me back to consciousness. I slowly took in my surroundings, not completely sure where I was or how I got here. I remembered bright lights, lots of pain, panic, and floating. I could only see through my right eye and while the room I was in wasn't lit, I could still see. There must have been a dim source of light somewhere. Trying to raise an arm to my head, I felt resistance. I had to turn my head to look.

Attached to my hand was a plastic doo-hickey with some wires running off the bed. A faint red light could be seen glowing under my finger. Also on that side of the bed was a device with a small red button. On either side of the bed were screens showing all sorts of things that I didn't understand. On my right I could see a couple tubes all connected to a bag, and then another tube running from that to my radius where it was taped pretty securely. It looked wrong, but as I forced myself to think through the fog, I realized that was probably why I wasn't feeling any pain right now. I was probably at a hospital if they were anything like what were showed on tv, which meant that device with the red button was probably to call the nurses.

Even as I reached for the button though, more light came into the room from beyond the small hall that obviously lead to the room's door. The door shut with a thump and a human man walked in while looking at his clipboard closely. He glanced up at me, then back down, only to do a double take. I grinned and waved with the arm that had the tube. It felt weird to move it. The tube pulled strangely.

"You're awake." Was all he said, though he seemed slightly relieved.

"Yep, typically what follows sleeping I hear." I joke. I feel like I should be doing something or going somewhere. Am I forgetting something important? I don't know.

He smiles. "Yes, I suppose it does. Would you mind answering some questions for me son?"

"Eh, sure." I agree. "Don't see why not."

"Can you tell me your full name please?"

"Gaster Sans Jr."

"And what's your birthday?"

"July ninth, nineteen ninety-one."

At that he looked up surprised. I was tall for my age at almost five foot eight. Being a skeleton, it was hard to tell age much once we stopped growing, and even as kids, it could be hard. He looked back down to his board and filled out the information.

"Who are your parents kiddo?"

"I live with my dad, Gaster Sans Sr. I've never met my mother."

He hummed absently as he scribbled. Divorce wasn't uncommon among monsters or humans.

"And what about your address?"

"Um, I'm not really sure. We live above a pizza place next to central park, but it doesn't really have an address. All the mail just goes to Freddie's Pizza Emporium." I shrug, but instantly curl over, gasping, holding my side.

The doctor was up and by my side instantly, pushing me to lay back. "Try to stay still son. You had quite a rough time of it out there. We can't give you any more medicine though."

"Yeah, sure. Okay. Man this hurts though. Shit." I swore, earning a sharp glance from the doc. Apparently he doesn't like language. "How long was I out by the way?"

"It's December twenty-eighth. I don't know how long you were on the streets, but you've been here for nine days." He told me, checking the machines and tubes.

"Oh man. Dad's gonna dust me for sure." I groaned.

He gathered a few other bits of information for the medical record then headed out to file it all.

Left on my own, I could feel the drugs trying to lure me back to sleep but fought it. I didn't want to sleep. I had been out for almost ten days. Those punks in the alley had really done a number on me apparently. What had been their leader's name? I couldn't really remember, but then his last words flashed through my head clear as if they'd only just been spoken.

"Huh, looks like he's already out. Hope his father's happy with this. I ain't chancing being a murderer cause he blacked out and already looks dead. I don't care how much the bastard payed. Grab the drugs, we're getting outta here."

My father had arranged the attack. Why would my dad set me up with thugs from a rival gang. I had been doing everything he had asked to the letter. It couldn't be true. I clenched my fists, I couldn't strain my jaw without shooting pains through my uncovered eye, but I could feel the rise of magic in me. Looking to my hands, I saw black and blue flames surrounding my hand. Huh, so my magic was multi-colored. Who woulda known.

One of the monitors started beeping excessively and my doc came back in fast. "Please calm down. Using your magic can have a negative effect on your recovery and will affect the machines on you and other patients." He didn't approach beyond the hallway.

Scowling, I forced myself to breath, like in the meditation dad had forced me to do as a kid. The thought of dad and what he'd done came up and made it flare, but I forced it from my mind and closed my eye, breathing deep and thinking only of my breath. I was finally able to force the magic back down into my bones. I opened my eye and looked at my hand, fascinated still by the flames that were no longer there. I couldn't remember the last time I had summoned my magic. It had been so easy to do. I looked up to the doctor still in the doorway. "Sorry, I didn't know it messed with the machines. Uh, can I have the bracelets and necklace I was wearing when I came in? They sort of keep it off."

He lifted his brows. They were very linked to his expressions I was realizing. "You can't control it on your own?" he asked.

"Nope. I'm not allowed to use it and always have to wear the amulets. Dad says I'm too strong to be left to use it on my own." I explained.

He nodded and walked over to the nightstand next to my bed. Opening the top drawer, he pulled out my two bracelets and heavy necklace.

I pulled the plastic thing with the red light off my hand and offered him my hand.

"You can put them on yourself kid. I'm not your maid." He seemed a bit offended.

"Actually I can't. I can't put them on or take them off. It's part of the enchantment on them. It's too keep monsters from accidentally putting them on without knowing the effects. We have to have someone else put them on for us." That gained me another sharp look. "I'm serious. Here, let me show you." I turned my hand so I could take the bracelet from him. He handed it over and I tried to push the piece over my hand. Whenever my fingers tried to pass through though, it was as if there was a piece of material or glass in the center, moving it away so I couldn't push my hand through. I looked back up to him, "See, it's magic and it ain't a trick." and handed the piece back to him.

"This type of stuff was outlawed over a decade ago kid. I don't know what your father's trying to pull, but it definitely isn't safe to just keep blocking your magic like this. I can't give these to you." He said, even as he took my bracelet from me.

"Wait, you mean it's illegal? Why, it's just to keep other's safe since my magic's too strong to be controlled." I asked. "I'm not gonna get in trouble for having it, am I?" I asked. Magic contraband had an even higher price on the market and a much longer sentence from the law if you were caught with it in comparison to drugs.

"Because you didn't know, you probably won't get in trouble, but your dad might. I'm going to have to confiscate these. I'm sorry." He started to walk out of the room.

I started to panic, I was never without my amulets, how would I control my magic without them. "Wait, what am I supposed to do then!" I called, then felt the pull I'd felt earlier and noticed my hand glowing pure sapphire and the monitors went nuts again. He turned pretty quickly at the sound of the monitor.

"Jeez kid, calm down. You were fine before I came back in. Just breathe. Try to calm down."

"Right." I said, still worried. I tried to breathe, like I had before, calming myself down, but the pulling sensation only got stronger. I heard him choke and opened my eye to see my whole arm lit up in yellow and sapphire flames. "Oh shit! That worked last time. What is going on!" I yelled, trying to wave my arm, but the tube attached kept me from moving too much.

The doc grabbed the radio at his hip and called something through it. Seconds later a spider monster came rushing in and over to me. "Calm down darling. Listen to me and everything will be okay." She had a soothing voice that immediately had me relaxing. As I relaxed, the blue faded from the flames, and they started to shrink back to just around my hand, turning completely yellow. She put her hand over the flames and then pushed them back into my hand. I thought it would just go through my palm hole, but it melted back into the bone and the pulling sensation disappeared. From the corner of my eye I noticed a few of her other hands putting something into my line and I was asleep within seconds.

"Did you have to give him so much?" a familiar scratchy voiced asked. Cracking my eye open, I saw my dad standing a few feet away. I wasn't in the hospital anymore. That much was clear from the concrete under me instead of a bed.

"Gaster, his magic was going haywire. You said you had it under control! Do you know how much I had to pay that nurse to get him to keep quiet? We have lost more on your brat in this week alone than we have in the past two years. He's done." A soothing and irritated voice said from down near my feet.

"Muffet, please. He can make it back up. Please, just give him a chance!"

"No, he had his chance. He's on his own. You'll find someone to take him if you're smart and cut ties. I'm sorry." Two sets of lavender hands came into my view to set on my dad's shoulder.

Dad's head held steady for a few seconds, before dropping. "Very well. I'll get things settled then."

"Good. I expect to see you at headquarters at seven sharp." The hands disappeared and stiletto heels could be heard clicking down the concrete tunnel.

Once the sound had faded completely, dad grabbed my arm forcefully. 'Get up. I know you're awake.' He signed.

Opening my eye completely, I pushed myself into a sitting position. My head was pounding something fierce and my chest was burning. "So what's gonna happen now?" I asked him. I had seen kids disappear before and knew to never ask about it. I never thought I'd be the next one.

'If you were smart, you'd jump in front of a train and save yourself the trouble of rebuilding. I never should have dragged you into all this. You'll have to make your own way from now on. I'm sorry. Good luck.'

He went to turn and walk away, just leaving me there, but I had one last question before he abandoned me. "Is it true? Did you set up that attack Dad?" My questioned echoed, bouncing back over and over in the tunnel. His silence was answer enough. "So this is it. You're just gonna leave me in some random tunnel under the city and walk away. You're not even gonna say sorry for all this! What the fuck!" I yelled.

Faster than I could track, he turned and cracked me backhand across the blind side of my head sending white pain through my skull and effectively dropping me. He may have signed something, but I couldn't see, fighting through the pain as I was. All I know is when my vision cleared, he was gone and I was alone.


	3. Age 18

Chapter 3

Age 18

It took a few months of living on the streets until I turned sixteen, but once I did, I got an ID and a legit job as an animal hander for some small care clinic that was just starting up. After another two years, I went to get my GED and passed with flying colors as I had been studying whenever I wasn't working. The people at the clinic had no idea that I was living in one of the abandoned warehouses down by the docks, but were very supportive when I said that I wanted to purse a degree in animal science. The real trouble was in that I didn't have an address when applying for the different scholarships, loans and colleges. I ended up putting the clinic's address for them all so that I could push things through.

One day when I was filling out the last of my application to Johnson College though, Lucy, our head veterinary technician looked over my shoulder and noticed the address I had put in for my home address. "Um, G, I think you got your home address mixed up with work address. You may want to fix that or you won't get in." she suggested, making me whip around way too quickly and almost topple the chair.

"Uh, wait, you mean that they actually check the addresses on these things?" I choked.

"Well, yes, but along with that, I'm from Johnson and they will likely recognize the address as where I did my internship honey. Why?" She was starting to look concerned.

I dropped my head to my hands. "I'm so done." I sighed.

"What's wrong G, honey?" she came over and rubbed my back.

"I put my address as this place on all my applications and scholarships. No wonder I haven't heard back from any of them." I groaned into my wrists.

"Why would you do that? Are you trying to hide what you're doing from your parents or something?" she was quite confused.

Raising my head, I decided on a whim it was time to finally spill. "Lucy, I'm actually living on my own in one of the warehouses by the shore. I don't actually have a home and I don't have a bank account, so I don't know how I'm gonna afford any of these." I turned away, ashamed as I realized just how out of my league I was. "Who am I kidding? How am I going to do this?" Hearing nothing behind me, I turned and saw that two of my other colleagues had come in and heard my whole confession. "I'm. So. Fired." I groaned.

Harold, the awesome guy that would give me a ride to the other end of town every day, was the first to react. "Why didn't you say something sooner? I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would have helped you get on your feet." He looked at the other two and they nodded, meeting his gaze and then mine. I was astounded. "Until you get a place, you are staying with me. We'll go grab your stuff after work tonight, and then you are done living on the streets. Clear?" he demanded.

"Uh, sure, I mean, if you are okay with it, I'd love that, but uh, are you really sure?" I asked. I hadn't had help in almost three years now. I didn't know how to take being offered help without anything expected in return.

He nodded. "It's settled then. We'll handle anything legal in the meantime and get you set up with a decent bank.

The rest of the day went by in a blur of worried looks and way too many files as two emergencies came in near the end of the day. After closing, as we were straightening and getting ready to leave, I glanced at a tv monitor that had been left on and dropped the trashcan I had just emptied making Sharron and Lucy look up. Lucy went back to writing out the last of her prescriptions, being our only doctor.

"Is everything okay G?" Sharron called and made her way over.

"Did, uh, was he actually caught?" I stammered, eyes not leaving the screen. On it was a full profile, listing charges from drug trafficking, to life trafficking (i.e. monster, human, and livestock), and murder. I couldn't hear the newscaster as I was too focused on taking in the detail of his face.

She glanced up at the television, "Yeah, I saw something in the paper last week about it." After a few seconds on looking over the bullet points on the screen, I heard her breath catch. "G, he isn't, by any chance, related to you? Is he?"

I fell into the chair that was to the side a little and it rolled a few inches before stopping. "That's my father. He finally bit it. Heh, serves him right." I started to giggle, then laugh, quickly falling to the floor in full body shaking cackling as I went into hysterics uncontrollably.

Lucy and Harold came rushing in, hearing the noise and were astonished at the scene. "What is going on in here?" demanded Lucy

Sharron looked over at them with shadowed eyes. "That's his father." She said, choking on the last word and pointing up at the screen. It finally changed a few seconds later as they changed topic to a house fire.

In the meantime I started to choke and gasp for breath and curl up in a ball. It was all just too much. I felt a hand on my back, flinched, and felt a pull in the base of my spine I hadn't felt since that time in the hospital. The frayed bracelets on my wrists snapped along with the chain around my neck as my magic forced itself out, in a blast of energy. The explosion of wiped me out and I promptly blacked out.

I blinked rapidly and immediately recognized the room. It was the hospital, again. And what do you know, room 666. Back when I was last here I hadn't know the significance of that number. Now I could only huff a laugh as I realized I was in the same room I had been before. I heard somebody shift next to the window and sat up. Harold was there. "You okay G? You sort of blew up in the office."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I actually feel a bit better than I have in a while. I can't quite place it tough." I said as I rubbed the back of my skull. That was when I noticed the absence of the bracelet. Looking at my other wrist, I saw that it too was gone. I felt at my neck and chest for that amulet and again, gone.

"They sorta blew up right before you did. What were they, G?"

"Uh …" I glanced at the doorway to make sure nobody was there and Harold noticed.

He walked over to the door, put his head out, said something, then came back. "I told the girls to come in." At this point the other two came in. "They deserve to know too."

Lucy gave us both a sharp look and immediately shot off, "Know what? How long has he been awake?"

Eyes widening, both Harold and I made calming gestures and said at the same time, "Calm down." We traded looks, grinned, and shrugged. It happened a lot at the office too. She was a worrywart.

Harold opened, "He just woke up and the first thing he looked for was that weird jewelry he always wears. You know, the stuff that blew up. Well, when I asked him about it, he checked the door, so I figured I'd better grab you two." He shrugged at my glare. "We're just trying to help G, don't look at me like that."

"Well fine, if we're putting me on the stand, can it at least wait until we are somewhere more private. I don't need more audience walking in." I snapped, throwing my arms wide. "It's not all legit." I grumbled in a lower tone, my hands settling back in my lap and calming down. I immediately noticed their eyes on my hands though. I quickly looked down, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "What's up with you guys?"

"Um, your hands were just glowing green. Like there were little flames on your fingertips or something." Sharron actually stuttered.

"Great." I grumbled and folded my arms.

A guy came in to check what the commotion on the monitors had been about and found us all in here. It was the same guy that had helped me those three years ago as well. He stopped the moment he saw me laying on the bed. "It can't be."

"Yo doc. Long time, no see. Everything seems to be fine, so can I go?"

"I'm afraid not Gaster, I need some paperwork filled out first. Same stuff as last time." He was sort of pale and his eyes never left my face.

I grinned. I knew the effect the cracks that had been left from the attack had on people. It usually annoyed me, but this was the guy who patched me up. He was getting to see his handy work after so long. "What's wrong. I think they healed up pretty nicely." I ran a hand over the one that went right over my crown.

"You disappeared the same day that you woke up. Nobody ever knew what had happened to you." He finally looked away from my face, looking me over entirely as he stepped fully into the room. "How'd the rib heal?" he asked conversationally.

I shrugged and pulled the edge of my sweater up to show the sheared off, missing fragment of my chest. The last rib on my right side ended abruptly halfway to the sternum. "It doesn't give me any pain anymore except when the weather gets really cold or if we have a bad rainstorm. I think it healed pretty well considering my circumstances."

His gaze darkened. I should never have made that deal. Would you mind telling me what happened after that? Or how you even came to be in that condition?" He looked me in the eyes.

"And fill us in too." Chimed in Lucy behind him, making us both jump as we had forgotten them.

He looked back and forth between them and me. I sighed. "Okay doc, what time you get off? I'll tell everyone a tale." I turned to my group in the corner, "I guarantee it will make your toes curl. Chinese, and it's on me." Two fists went in the air from the corner.

"I get off at eight and thank you." Doc told me. "Now, onto current business, I'll update your profile and get you out of here as soon as possible." Glancing at the clock it was already six.

Two hours later we were finally leaving and the doc, apparently his name was Ivan, had gotten tied up with an emergency. We left a number for him and headed out to grab my stuff from the warehouse so I could start settling in with Harold. Upon arriving at the warehouse, we saw the wrecking crane and I was grateful to know that I was getting out tonight. Coming home to a building that wasn't standing anymore was depressing. I didn't have much. My clothes for work and some street clothes. I quickly grabbed my blankets from where they were stashed in a forgotten crate of mothballs and ran back outside. I'd kept light since leaving home. This was my seventeenth location. The less I had, the easier it was to relocate. Stepping outside, I automatically scanned the area for anybody. My awareness of others had only increased after leaving the gang and joining the streets. Deeming it clear, I moved to Harold's car, the trunk popped and I tucked my stuff in quickly and got in the passenger seat.

"Is that seriously all you got G? That's hardly anything." He looked over to me worried.

"It's easier to move with less and people are less likely to steal if you have nothing. Just a fact of the streets." I shrugged.

"This is nuts." He grumbled and turned the radio on as we drove off to upper city. I was finally moving up.

Once there, we got out and he offered to help me grab what little I had, so trying to keep things light and amiable, I tossed him my rolled up comforter. "Here, I got the clothes, but that's a little bulky."

He caught it and after a few moments, found the strap keeping it wrapped together. "Is that everything?" He had a hand on the top, ready to close when I was done.

I stood and nodded, "Thanks again man."

"No problem, still can't believe you were living in an abandoned warehouse all this time." He shook his head as he walked into the condo and up to the second floor. This was a better section of town, so the stairway was actually lit and the walls reflected the golden color of the luminescent lightbulbs. He turned to one of the two whitewashed doors on this level and started fumbling in his pockets, passing the comforter to me as he presumably looked for his keys. Finally he pulled them out, only to make a strangled noise. "I grabbed the wrong ones. Shoot shoot shoot." He muttered.

"Is everything okay?" I asked. I could guess the problem, but wasn't going to push him.

"I seem to have locked myself out again." He sighed pulling out his phone.

"I can get it if you want." I offered. He spun to look at me strange. "What? The locks in places like this are usually pretty low quality, they're easy." I shrugged.

He stared at me a moment longer, glanced at his phone, sighed, and flipped it closed. Go ahead. If the girls get here and realize I locked myself out, I'll never hear the end of it."

I smirked, "Yeah, that is a bit embarrassing." I agreed as I pulled a set of picks out of my sleeping roll that he had just been carrying and proceeded to unlock his door in seconds. "Done." I announced, even as the door swung in.

"H-how did you? Nevermind, I don't wanna know." He sighed, grabbing my blanket back and stepping into his apartment.

"Wouldn't tell anyway, I'd have to kill you." I slung off easily. It was just joking, but I honestly couldn't answer where I had learned or who had taught me. That was info from the dark world, and had no place in the light. The look he gave me told me he half believed me. Whatever.

"I've got a spare room off mine in the back if you want to drop your stuff there." He said over his shoulder as he made his way to said room, passing through what was obviously his bedroom. "Bathroom's out connected to the main room we came into, so is the kitchen. If you need anything, just let me know until you get settled. Since we both have off this weekend, we can talk about balancing who pays what. If you are going to college soon, there is no point in you getting your own place. It's just too much work, trust me."

We stepped into the room and he looked around before setting my stuff in a corner. It was actually decently furnished and clean looking. All the condos I had ever been in had been a bit ratty, some even had rats. This room though, it had thick shag carpet, a queen sized bed in the center of the room, some nicknacks on wall-hung shelves to make it more homely, and a window on two of the walls, though the one only showed the condo next door about six feet away. "Thank you, this is really nice. You scored good." I told him, taking it all in.

"Are you kidding, this is low class…" he caught himself and looked back at me and then down. "Ah…"

"I wasn't always on the streets. I had a place once, this is nice. It's a bit bigger than what we had. Now that I know what Dad did for a living though, we probably could have lived a lot better." I had to look away. Changing the subject, I looked toward the door, "When do you think the girls will get here?" a knock sounded just then.

"That's probably them." Harold responded, laughing a bit hollowly, trying to bring back a bit of cheer.

This is gonna be a long night. I groaned. I'm glad it's Friday. I set my clothes on the bed and quickly changed from my scrubs and thermals to one of my better tees and a set of worn jeans that were pretty comfortable. Making my way out, hearing my new roommate usher the girls in and I heard Ivan's voice too. Stepping into the living area, I smiled and greeted everyone. "Hey, so are we ordering before all the good places close? I'm starved!"

Sharron cheered while Harold ran to find a few menus kept in the kitchen, Lucy and Ivan sat on opposite ends of the couch. He still was in his scrubs, having not been able to get out of them. The girls were in casual attire as well, and Harold always wore his clothes under his scrubs in the winter, so he'd stripped sometime before I'd woken at the hospital. He came out and passed around the menus for a place that was close and pretty cheap and everyone ordered, getting rice or noodles as was preference. I personally liked the pork lo mein at this joint. Once the order was set, everyone got settled, just chatting and getting to know Ivan for the most part. He was the only one of us that none of us really knew.

"So, what exactly do you do?" I asked. Ever blunt and honestly curious. Sharron snorted in the background on her cola.

He smiled at her. "I'm a nurse in the supernatural department of magical rehabilitation and internal medicine." At our blank expressions, he laughed. "Okay, yeah, I get that a lot. Basically, I make sure vitals are steady and record the data on how the magic levels of monsters," He nodded at me, "affect recovery time and influence their vitals. I also help in surgeries every so often when we are short a person, which is how I ended up getting your case all that time ago. It had been quiet and was late, there were only a few of us and then we got a call that a skeleton monster with a heavily damaged cranium and major damage to his ribs, possible trauma to other areas came in, I was instantly recruited to help. We honestly weren't sure you would make it and when monsters pass, it's quite hard to figure out who to notify when we have no records. It's a lot of paperwork, so I was relieved when you woke, not just because you did, but because it saved me more work. Its selfish, but there it is." He gave a little self-conscious laugh, rubbing the back of his neck at that admission.

"Naw, we get ya," Sharron broke in, adding her two cents, "I always hate doing the wrap and notes on the cadavers after a patient passes. For one it's hard on us to see a patient pass, especially an emergency case with no tags, and then the paperwork is just annoying."

Well, she almost gave an out. The look Ivan gave her was priceless though and had me rolling back laughing. I had taken a seat on the floor. I was more comfortable there anyway. They all jumped, I wasn't known for being boisterous.

"You okay G?" asked Lucy, concerned.

"Yeah, yeah." I waved her away, then noticed the pulling at the base of my spine and sobered up immediately, looking at my hand. "Shit." It had little purple flames that turned sapphire even as I watched, but thankfully didn't grow. "Uh, any idea as to how to handle these?" I asked the air.

Ivan immediately took charge. "Just breathe. Take deep, slow breaths and imagine it returning back into you. Close your eyes if it helps."

I did as I was told and felt the pull disappear. When I opened my eyes, the flames were gone once more. "That is going to get annoying quick." I groaned.

His expression dark, Ivan asked, "You never got a tutor for that, did you? You were still using those inhibitors."

My group from the clinic were looking between us again. "Okay, somebody fill us in here already." Demanded Lucy. Harold and Sharron just looked worried.

Ivan looked at me, but I was busy studying the way the shag of the carpet stood and the threads were spun. I didn't like talking about my past. Especially not to people who only knew my present. I heard him sigh, but still didn't look up.

Ivan looked up, meeting the other three's gazes. "About two years ago" he started.

I interjected. "Three."

He looked back at me. His brow was probably lifted, but I didn't look up. "Two and a quarter." He countered. I nodded. That sounded more right. "About two and a quarter years ago," He restarted, "I was working my shift when we were called as I explained earlier. When we finally got him, his skull was covered in blood, as was his shirt and jacket." He paused after every sentence, giving me time to interject again or for any of us to tell him to stop.

It was Lucy who interjected. "We are from the animal medical field, we can handle the squeamish bits Ivan. If Gaster really wants us to not tell the story, he can stop us at any point since he isn't sharing anything."

I could feel her glare on my skull. I just nodded.

"Oh, okay. Well then." I had glanced up just in time to meet his eyes, but quickly dropped them again. He cleared his throat. "As I was saying, he came in a real mess. Once we got him into the ER and got him stripped down so we could see the extent of the damage, we were amazed he hadn't dusted already. Three of his ribs had been cracked, the last one was barely hanging on and we knew there was minimal chance of saving it, but we tried anyway. With the cracks on his skull, we made sure there wasn't any damage inside, that was the first time I realized that skeletons really are just all bone." He was rubbing his neck again. A nervous habit.

At some point I had looked up and was watching as I listened. I had never heard an account of what happened after I passed out or while I was out those nine days.

Then we realized that there were spots that the impact had caused spider-webbing fractures inside his cranium as well, we were amazed." I flinched at the mention of spiders and webs, he didn't seem to notice, but did look at me as he made his next statement. "The kid had one really thick skull. Whoever hit you, they meant business. Had you been human, that hit in the back would have killed you." The vet team's eyes got big. "Then the crack on his face, we never did figure out how he managed that, but we were afraid he would lose his sight." Ivan looked down at me.

"Nope, I can see fine. Occasionally the nick on the bottom messes with me, but otherwise, full color vision with perfect depth." I replied to the unasked question even as I pointed out the small v where the crack started in my socket. "Hurt a bit to eat for a while though."

"Well, that's good to hear. Once we had done what we could, wrapped his head and ribs, making him look more like a one-eyed zombie than a skeleton. He remained comatose for another week or so. Then one day I walk in and he just starts cracking jokes like he hasn't been on the knife's edge of death for the past week. I'll admit, I've seen some strange things in my line of work, but seeing a skeleton start cracking jokes was the last I even expected. Yours is a race in the minority and it was, ah, I don't want to say a pleasure working on you. That would be creepy, but, I guess it was a pleasure meeting you?"

Sharron burst out laughing, slapping her knee. She had no such qualms about carrying full conversations with the animals she worked on as they were under anesthesia. She would continue them even as they went and came again, making her the labeled nut of the clinic.

Ivan was understandably taken aback, humans after all, were usually more touchy about such talk. "What is so amusing?" he demanded.

Even I couldn't help chuckling. "Sharron is just being her, take no mind." I said, but couldn't stop the escape of another chuckle, her laughter becoming infectious.

Harold shook his head. "In our field, we don't often have to look into how the patient feels emotionally about what we say. Its more how we act. When we talk to the patient about their operations, the clients, or owners, typically relax as well. Our different ways in dealing with patients is likely what set her off. I apologize."

"Thank you Harold." Said Lucy, shooting a glare at Sharron, who was finally starting to calm down.

"So what happened next?" pushed Sharron, the main reason we had stopped the story. She was like a child sometimes, I swear.

"Well, I started asking him general questions to fill out his medical file and when I found out he was only fifteen, I was amazed. He's grown quite a bit since then, but still, that was pretty tall for his age."

I blushed white, not noticing when little flames popped up next to my head until Lucy gave me a look. "What?" I protested.

"You're burning again."

I checked my hands, but nothing, so looked back up quizzically.

"They're gone. You had a small flame on each shoulder. They were white this time." Was all she said.

I slumped. "I'm such a freak." And dropped my head in my hands.

It was Ivan who responded. "No, you just never received proper training. I'm sure the colors mean something as well, but the way it comes and goes will just take practice."

"What about work? Or school?" I groan.

"We'll figure it out." Lucy told me.

I just nodded.

"Back to the story," Ivan spoke up, "Once I had gotten all his info, I left to go file it, but before taking a few steps, my pager went off alerting me to magic in use in the area. His room to be precise. When I entered, he was just sitting there staring at his hand engulfed in flames entranced. I was of course terrified that I had gotten a looney pyro or something. I asked him to put them out, and he did, though he didn't seem very used to do it as he had to concentrate, as it appears he still has to. I explained that using magic was affecting his monitors and would affect his healing, which he seemed to understand readily enough. Then he asked me something I didn't understand. He wanted the wraps and necklace we'd had to take off him earlier. I figured they were important, like an heirloom, and had left them in the stand next to him. I retrieved them for him, but when I offered them to him, he explained I had to put them on for him. They were magic blockers, meant to keep a monster from having any access to his magic at all. Then he told me that his father required that he wear all _three_ of them all the time due to his magic being too strong or some nonsense. The items themselves where illegal, but to force them on a child was beyond cruel. I was about to confiscate them when he went nuts, almost lighting the room on fire."

I had to interject here. "I didn't go that nuts. It was just my arm, and you were taking my only protection. I'm still not sure what's going to happen not that I've lost them. Finding another set that strong will be hard and expensive." I grumbled.

"You shouldn't be looking for them at all, or even know how to look for them!" Ivan seemed a bit mad and scared. "They are only sold in the lowest of the black market according to the police reports."

"There are a few lower. Monster parts sell nicely for higher if you can get them without them going to dust. It's very hard, but the payout is huge." I shrug. All eyes are on me and horrified. "I just did what I was told. I was a kid. Think the worst I had to transport was a.." Harold was the one to cut me off, surprisingly.

"Dude, that's just wrong. That you did it and that as a kid you were made do it. Please tell me you don't still do that stuff." He was almost as white as me.

"Naw, when I got kicked out, I stopped. I went to lighter stuff, the meth and weed sellers. Still profitable, but not nearly as dangerous, usually. I stopped shortly after I joined you guys though. Figured if I was gonna get clean, might was well start there." I shrugged again. They all still looked horrified.

"Well, I don't know what to say to that." Was Ivan's declaration. "So I'll just wrap my part up. I couldn't get him to calm down and went to call back up when a spider lady came in and had him calm in seconds. Then he just passed out. I figure it was probably from the exertion. I'm ashamed to admit that she convinced me to burn your file and give back the amulets. She bribed everyone who had seen, dealt with, or seen you to never say a word, plus payed all the bills on top of it. She really wanted us to keep quiet. She took you and left. That was the last I saw or heard about you to I walked in today. I've always felt bad about taking that bribe and wondered what happened to you. We all did. Before I left, I know I heard a few of the other nurses and doctors talking about how relieved they were that you survived. I'd like to take them news of what happened, if you'd allow it of course."

By now, I'd curled up with my arms wrapped around my knees, rocking slightly. I took a shaky breath to start to answer when there was a sharp knock on the door. I looked to Harold, but he seemed confused, then Sharron shouted "Foods here!" and dashed for the door, almost stepping on me. I got up as she thanked the man and took the food before he knew what hit him. I came up behind her, but stayed clear as she turned and barreled back in. I paid they guy, with good tip, and apologized for my friend. He left quite happily with tip in pocket. Coming back to the living area, food was spread everywhere as people tried to find their particular dishes and complained about particulars missing as was always the case in large orders. I was the only one to order something with a dark sauce, so it was easy to pick out and sat back to watch, enjoying the break.

Once we finished our respective dishes and had our fortune cookies, I relayed my side of what had happened, avoiding their eyes the whole time as I tried to avoid my past, by not looking at it. When I was done, I finally looked up and was astounded to see even Lucy, who was an unmovable rock, to be on the verge of tears.

"Oh G!" She stepped forward, enveloping me in a rose scented hug and starting to sob. Following her lead, everyone else joined. Definitely not what I expected.

As everyone stepped back, Sharron took my shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes. "We will definitely get you into one of those schools. I swear it. You will be an amazing technician, I just know it." And gave me another hug, before returning to her seat sniveling.

"Well, I don't know about you lot, but I could sure use a drink after all that." I laughed.

In unison, they all said, "You're underage."

I laughed and they joined me. We all ended up drinking a little and watching some movie marathon on tv about a skeleton in a sleigh pulled by pigs. I guess it was close to the holiday, being December and all, but it was still really strange.

Ivan ended up going home via taxi, but turns out that's how he got here anyway. The girls crashed on the couch, both too intoxicated to drive, and both Harold and I retired to our respective rooms. It was good to finally tell someone about my life, but I didn't think I'd be retelling the story anytime soon. I was asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.


	4. A Few Weeks Later

A few weeks passed since I had told my story and I got situated in Harold's place pretty nicely. My constant magic flare-ups made it impossible for me to be around any of the clients, but I could handle the animals in back just fine.

Oddly enough, with all the barking and growling from the dogs, and the occasional feral cat going ballistic, I was pretty at ease. My thoughts were only on my charges and my magic didn't manifest much at all. I had the largest problem with it when I was at home, as I quickly found myself calling Harold's apartment. I would just be talking about something or watching a movie and it would flare up without warning. Thankfully it never actually burned my clothes or the furniture. We found out it wasn't inherently dangerous when Harold tripped and crashed into me and it flared. He didn't get burned at all. It put everyone in a slightly better mindset. The biggest problem was when it flared around the machines and messed with them.

The first thing I started doing, without telling the others of course, was to start looking for magic dealers so I could get another set that may help at least until I could get a handle on it. None had anything that was strong enough though. Dad had apparently been right on that count, my magic was stronger than the average monster's.

It was Thursday after work and I had decided to take a detour to visit a better, if more expensive, dealer in the area that I knew.

With Harold living so close I walked home simply because I could. I enjoyed walking.

I walked into the shop, the front looking like some perfume shop that stunk to high heaven. There was a blond chick painting her nails at the counter. She shot me a completely fake smile. "What can I help you with today sir?" she asked in a very practiced false cheerful voice.

"I'm looking for a scent that makes the night seem bright and the earth feel like sky." I replied. I had gotten the password off of some junkie who came here for cheap dope. It was way too long and too flashy, but that was just like the dealer.

The girl's eyes immediately became worried. "I'm sorry sir. I don't think we can help you with that." She tried to evade.

"What's Jerico hiding from, or has he changed his name again." I sighed as she played hardball. I was in no mood.

"I-I don't know any Jerico. Sir, I'm going to please ask you to leave." She was definitely scared. Probably thought I was a relative of someone he pissed off when he sold their parts. He lived in the deepest part of the dark world, hence why I was hoping he might be able to help me. It was just the cost I was worried about.

Sighing, I pushed past the counter and through the beaded curtain into the back room.

"Hey, you can't go back there!" she yelled, but didn't go through the beads herself.

"Idiot." I murmured under my breath and kept walking. The back was like a stock room. I looked for the most expensive shelf and sure enough, it was against a wall. One bottle looked a bit off. I shook my head, he may be in deep, but he was still flashy. I grabbed the bottle and finding it attached to the wall, turned it, opening a door into a deeper part of the shop. I stepped in and closed the door behind me. It was dim back here, but lit well enough to see.

"What do you want! I'm busy. I told Jessica to keep people out today." Groused a hidden nasally voice.

I grinned. "Now that's no way to greet an old pal, Jerico." I drew out the name. He had always feared me, likely due to my father and the gang behind us, so I couldn't resist picking. It had been years, since before I got the boot, since I had visited this man.

"Who's there?!" He squealed and I noticed his head pop up over a high shelf behind the desk. The place was a maze of high shelves with the desk in the center.

I laughed darkly. "Just me. GJ. I'm in the market and I'm thinking you may have something that I'm looking for." GJ was my street name. It kept strangers from confusing me with my father and allowed me to create my own name.

"GJ? I thought you were dead?" I heard skittering, then he came out from behind the shelf.

I made a show of looking at myself. "If I were you, yeah, I'd be dead, but I'm still moving so must be alive." I joked.

He looked unsure. "You are certainly more jovial and careless than when I last saw you."

Instantly I check my surroundings, but find nobody in the direct area, so no ambush.

"That's more like the GJ I'm used to. Now, where you been? The underground will be abuzz to hear you're back." He settled at his desk as he opened conversation. He was now comfortable that I hadn't turned straight it seemed.

"I'm not back, I'm just looking for merch that I can't get otherwise. I need magic inhibitors, strong ones, and I need silence, no questions asked and no spreading the word that I was here." I explained.

"hmmm, well, that may be hard. You see, I had word you were back about a week ago, so word is already out." He went quiet suddenly.

I was glaring at him, annoyed that I had let the slimeball from a week and a half ago run off. He was obviously a rookie runner, but if he was running his jaws, he could cause trouble. I noticed Jerico's silence finally through my musing and glanced at him. He was quite pale. Glancing at my clenched fist, I saw it was glowing green. I held it up, opening my hand as my flames condensed into a ball over my hollow palm.

"What's wrong Jerico? Not used to fire, or is it that you thought I didn't have magic?" I looked at him threateningly. "I'll be adding information to my order. Now, let's talk about those products I'm looking for." I snapped my hand shut, releasing a sharp breath. Thankfully the magic dispelled when I willed it or I would look quite foolish and weak. Not something I could afford at the moment.

"O-Of course, sir. Wh-What is it you were looking for exa-actly?" he stuttered in fear.

"I'm looking for a powerful magic inhibitor. One that can be easily hid and manipulated by the one it's applied to. Stronger even than the ones that my father purchased from you." I added that last bit as a bluff. I was almost positive that my father had gotten mine from this man. That was why I had come here. The way his eyes bulged confirmed my suspicions.

"How did you know about those?" he asked.

"I'm asking the questions. Now, do you have something like that or not?"

"Yes, yes I do. Let me just go grab them. I will be right back. I swear!" he turned and fled back into the maze of shelves and I slumped.

I was out of practice when it came to information gathering. Thankfully this guy was always such a pushover. It was his way of doing deals that was dangerous. The only reason he lived this long was that his prices were reasonable and he sold hard to find items. So long as you paid up-front, you were fine. Make a deal though, and he would find some way to take everything you had before you knew what happened. I'd seen him break more than one unfortunate soul that way.

I heard the patter of his feet as he returned and forced myself back up so he wouldn't catch me with my guard down.

"What of these?" he offered a small wooden box with a gold clasp on the front. I gave him a sharp glance and he wilted immediately and set the box on the desk facing me and opened it to show some much smaller pieces of jewelry.

A few silver and gold colored rings, a set of garnet earrings in gold settings which I passed over, and then a gold bar with a gold ball on each end with sapphires set in each ball. It looked too small to go in an ear or navel, but too long and wrong shape for a septum. I carefully picked it up and immediately felt the drain on my strength. It wasn't as strong as the wraps I'd had, but it certainly took a good amount out of me. "What is this piece?"

"It's a tongue ring, sir." He looked away, obviously a bit embarrassed. It wasn't common knowledge that skeletons could have non-skeletal parts, so I didn't fault him for thinking I would not have need of this particular piece.

I closed my hand around it and looked through the box a bit more, finally selecting a gold ring with garnets inset around the inside of the band, out of sight. Stones were a powerful agent in magic worked by humans, and it just so happened that humans were the most adept at securing a monster's power. "I'll take these two." I said.

His look told me he was surprised, but he asked no questions.

"Now, who is spreading rumors about me?" I asked. Direct questions would hopefully get me my answers faster. I had already been here too long. I didn't know what I would tell Harold, but I knew it was not gonna be true.

"I heard it at a bar. I honestly didn't believe the mutt, neither did anybody else. Everyone thinks you're dead. It was a temmie monster. I don't know their name." he provided. It was too easy, but he was a rat.

"And what is all this going to cost me, and don't try to bid me up. I may have not been in the market, but I have kept an eye on costs. I'll know if you try to cheat me." I allowed my magic to manifest once more, as it had been pressing against my bones, but kept from emerging with the inhibitors held in my grasp. This time it emerged as an orange glow over my hand and wrist. The magic wasn't unnoticed by Jerico.

"Five grand for the items, another two hundred for the info." His eyes never left my hand, but actually widened even more as the magic turned black, completely obscuring my white bones.

"And what if I told you I would trade you a rib off a skeleton monster, intact, with four hundred. Would that settle the tab?" I countered. I only has seven hundred from my last check.

His eyes went wide. Skeletons were rare, to get a rib off of one of them was more like ten grand, but it was only a partial, not that he knew that. I just wanted to be rid of it. "That would work just fine. You have the payment on you?" he checked.

"I do." I pulled out the cash from my wallet and pulled the bone from inside my jacket. I set both on his desk for him to look over, which he did. The bone he handled with the utmost care.

"Was there anything else you needed?" He asked, eyes flicking from me to the bone, afraid I would change my mind and take it back.

"That will be all. The extra from that will be put on credit. I will be back at some point. I expect you to live long enough. Don't get stupid pal." I offered a hand and we shook.

"Three grand on the tab, gotcha." He said with a grin.

"Four and a half grand." I said, gripping his hand tight, feeling the knuckles of his hand grind.

"Okay, okay." I released him. "You drive a hard bargain."

"And remember, I'm not back, I wasn't here, and you never heard, nor saw me around."

"You got it GJ. You're dust in the air as far as I'm concerned."

"Set that up and you'll wish you were." I threatened and walked out, almost forgetting to cancel out my magic.

The next step would be actually finding somebody who would pierce my tongue. I figured that would be sorta difficult, and then explaining it to my coworkers. I don't think they will approve, but for now at least, it is needed. As I walked out of the shop, I subtly slid the ring onto a random finger and dropped the stud in a pocket of my half-jacket before tucking my hands into my jeans pockets. As I continued my trek home, I noticed just how many tattoo and piercing shops there were. I had never paid them any attention before as I hadn't had much interest in inking my bones, but now that I was looking for them, they were everywhere. The question was, which should I go to. I had a lot of research ahead of me. Turning the corner onto my block, I noticed there was a shop directly across from our apartment as well. It was ironic how conveniently it was placed.

I huffed out a steamy breath in the chill air and made my way to my building, and then up to the apartment. I now had a key, so I let myself in as had become habit. It was always locked, whether someone was home or not. New York just wasn't safe enough to leave doors open. "I'm home." I called as I toed off my sneakers and left them by the door next to Harolds.

"Where were you. You're normally back by twenty after. You're almost an hour late." My housemate scolded.

"Sorry, had something I wanted to take care of." I evaded. I didn't want to directly lie to him, but I also knew that the truth wouldn't be welcomed either.

I heard a sigh from the kitchen area. "Well, you have a phone. Let me know next time. I was afraid you wouldn't get home in time for supper. I made quiche with ham and cheddar."

"Awesome!" I cheered from the doorway as I pulled off my jacket and hung it on a wall hook. It may only be a half-jacket, but it kept my arms and ribs warm. My thick turtle neck was enough for my spine, besides, I liked the jacket. I walked into the main room and flopped on the couch. FIFIA was on and from the looks of things, Brazil was winning. They were ahead of Egypt by a solid ten goals. "Yo, Har, how far are they in?"

"We're only on the first quarter. I don't know what's happening, but it looks like Egypt is really off their game. Losing that forward and goalie last season has really hurt their team." He had come over and was standing behind the couch watching with me.

Out of my periphery vision I saw him hand down a plate and accepted it. The thick pie slice on my plate looked weird, but so did a lot of things he made. I took a bite and couldn't believe how good it was, or how hot. I quickly covered my mouth as I tried to cool off the food by breathing in through my mouth. Covering it of course did little to provide cover, but it was the gesture. "Hot!" I choked around the food.

"Well it just came out of the oven ya dip." He laughed.

When I finally managed to swallow it, I stuck out my tongue and scraped over it, pulling the burnt magic off.

"Dude, that just looks wrong. You look like your sucking on some sort of demented banana, and since when did you have a tongue anyway. Ivan said that when they were working on you, all you had was bone."

The game had gone over to commercial break, so I looked up to him, pulling my now unburnt yellow tongue back in. "It typically only manifests when I'm awake. Not like I need it when I'm asleep."

"I-I guess. Though, that is the first time I've seen your magic that color. Maybe it's just you're tongue that's that color?" he asked.

I blushed white. "Uh, I don't know. It's really not that big a deal." He was watching me very intensely and it was kinda creepy.

"Nope, guess not." He sighed and looked away, finally taking a bite of his supper, only to have to juggle it on his own tongue, making me laugh.

"Hey, it's hot." I picked.

He playfully backhanded my shoulder, only to pull his hand back, rubbing the knuckles. "I know." His answer was garbled as he talked with a full mouth.

"So I'm guess it changed color or something?" I asked when I stopped laughing at him and he managed to finish his mouthful.

"Yeah, turned white, just like you're blush. It's always funny to see you blush. I never would have thought it possible for a skeleton to blush. Living with you is certainly a daily learning experience." He laughed, and I had to join him in that.

The rest of the night passed in amicable chatter and jokes. Brazil won the game, though Egypt did make a decent come back in the third quarter. I saw him glance at the ring, but nothing was said on the matter and I only had two magic flare ups. Less than I had had since I had lost my wraps.

Within the next week I researched the surrounding area for shops and their customer reviews. Some places were obviously just fronts for underworld business, some just had bad reviews, and some had outstanding, stellar reviews. These last ones I scoped out in my free time to see if they had ties buried under their good name to the underground. I finally narrowed my search to six different parlors. I took the time to go into each one and talk to the people who worked there and get quotes for the work I wanted done. Out of the six, only two said they would pierce my magic, and I had bad vibes from the one. It ended up that a parlor all the way across town was the one I ended up going to. They explained that since my tongue was made of magic, instead of flesh, I would likely not have to worry about it swelling and the whole healing process, but it still would initially sting. He explained that he had pierced magic before, although not a tongue, he had done other parts, and couldn't really tell me more than that for client confidentiality. So, almost a month after I had purchased the stud, I was finally getting it put in. I was nervous, but ready. With this in, my magic should stop it's outbreaks completely. I didn't know if I'd still be able to access it, but if not, I could always take off the ring to do so. The stud and the ring felt about the same power.

"Alright, take a breath."

I did.

"And again."

I exhaled and took another, only to jump and let out an undignified squeak.

"Whoa, okay, that was different. It's in. Just hold still for a few more seconds." I felt him messing with the rod, pulling it slightly and feeling the metal pull through the fresh wound. Then he pulled away. "Alright. You're all done. What do you think?"

He handed me a mirror so I could check it out. The weight felt strange to say the least, but I kind of liked it. After swallowing a few times I stuck out my tongue. Where it had been sapphire before, it was now yellow with a bit of purple along the edge and center. The golden metal with the sapphire set looked large and small at the same time, but definitely looked different than I was used to seeing in my image. I pulled my tongue back in and the ball clicked against my top teeth hard. I couldn't stop the giggle that followed. "It's weird. I like it, but it will take some getting used to." Forming words around the metal was hard, but I needed to relearn to speak.

He laughed. "Don't try to talk around the piercing. Just talk like you normally do. That's the trick of it. Well, we're done. You already paid, so you're good to go. Come back if you have any questions. Okay?" he offered a hand to help me off the table I was sitting on and I accepted, hopping off and smiled.

"Sure thing. Thank you." I had felt the immediate repression of my active magic, but it was still there, just faintly. I was getting better already at talking with the metal in my mouth, though I still slurred a bit. It was certainly strange.

"Oh, and buddy, why don't you take one of these cards. I have a feeling that you may benefit from giving them a call." He handed me a business card from his pile.

I figured it was some affiliate shop or some such, but as I read the info on it, I couldn't believe it. This was for magic training and photography. I looked up at him, confused as to why he would recommend I go to photography. As far as I knew, I hadn't let my uncontrolled magic slip.

"The way your magic changes colors, I've never seen that, plus, when I ran the needle through, your hand lit up. I know not everybody gets training when they are young, or they just get homeschooled and that isn't always enough. Either way, I'd recommend getting some work in on that. Nothing personal." He smiled amicably and shrugged.

Guess I did. "Thank you. I'll definitely give them a call." I half whispered. Finding people who taught magic control had proven to be a hard search as everybody had looked. The few we had found only took young monsters or didn't want someone with my obvious extra power. There was no guarantee that this person would be any different, but I knew that we hadn't checked this one yet. I recognized the name, but not from recently. I couldn't place it.

I walked out of the shop still staring at the card, according to the hours on it, they were still open and they weren't too far out of my way home, so I figured why not stop by and see what was there. The worst that could happen is that this person was somehow linked back to my mafia past. If that were the case, I'd just make up some lie. Nobody had seen me since I was a kid, they likely wouldn't recognize me now anyway. With that thought, I started to make my way down the street toward a hopefully new training master on magic.


	5. Magical Photography

Chapter 5 – Magical Photography

A few blocks and a few more turns led me to a small shop squished between some high rises and cast in the shadows of all the tall buildings behind and in front of it. This was the type of place that was easily looked over. It was no wonder we had missed it in our search.

The windows had heavy black out curtains, likely to aid in the photography taking that was this person's main income. I had no doubt that that they were probably enchanted as well to help keep destruction from untrained children's magic from getting out of hand.

I shrugged and put my cigarette out on the heel of my palm, putting the remaining half in the metal case I kept just for my cigs. No point in wasting half a smoke when they just kept getting more expensive. I walked up and pushed open the heavy wood door. I figured that was just another defense against magic or something. The inside of the shop had decorative panels for pictures set all along the walls and hung in racks where they couldn't find space on the floor. I heard murmuring in the back, so assumed that this person, Ms. Cloud, must have other customers in the back. To keep myself occupied, I decided to look around. Some of these back drops were quite intricate while others where a simple solid color. There had to be a couple hundred just in this room. Who knew how many there were stored in the back.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realized anybody came in. Is there something I can help you with sir?" I heard an uncertain voice call out.

"Actually yes. I heard you offer monster magic lessons." I opened, not turning around or knocking down my hood yet as I had left it up.

"That's right. Do you know someone looking at the moment? I don't have any students currently as I just opened recently." She rambled slightly, then caught herself.

"Do you only offer training for children, or just adults as well?"

"Um, well, as I said, I don't have any students at the moment, so I don't see why taking an adult as a student would be a problem." Now she was definitely uncertain.

"Alright." I turned smiling in a somewhat disarming manner, though it usually had an off putting effect with my cracked skull. "How much would these classes cost?" on the last two words my new piercing clicked and pulled on my teeth, messing with the words a bit and causing them to slur slightly.

Her eyes widened as she took in that I was actually a monster, not a human, and took in my face. "Uh, it depends on how much previous training they have." Her eyes never left my face.

"Well, let's quit beating around the bush. I'm the one looking for training and I have no previous training. Due to circumstances I never had access to my magic until certain recent events. Now it keeps flaring up and I need to know how to keep it under control. I can't work when my magic keeps appearing unbidden."

"Hmmm. So since you're an adult and starting at basics, the first lesson will be one-twenty-five and after that they will be seventy-five for each consecutive session. Sessions would be an hour long and at least once a week." She had looked down to a planner book that was laying on the counter and seemed more composed when she wasn't looking at me.

"That sounds reasonable. What times do you have available?" I asked. I had to make sure that it would work with my work schedule.

"Well, I have mornings and evenings open during the week or anytime during the weekend." As she finished, she looked up and jumped a little at seeing I had come over to the counter to examine the planner as well.

"The week days won't work, but I'm free every weekend. What is your earliest time?"

"Well, currently I have seven in the morning as my opening time. Would seven fifteen work for you on Saturdays?"

"Can we do both Saturday and Sunday? I want to get a handle on this as fast as possible. I'm looking at getting into college in the next few months and if I can't control my magic it will make attending a very hard thing."

"Sir, magic training can't be rushed. If it is, the consequences can be quite disastrous, especially amongst adults. That is not to say that I can't work with you two days, but I don't think that two consecutive days would do much."

I sighed deeply and ran a hand over my face, then back over my head, knocking the hood back and showing off even more of the crack that ran over my crown. It looked worse the more you saw because it didn't stop but actually branched out. "Very well, put me down for Saturday mornings at seven then."

"Alright. Can I have your name please?" she asked. The question was normal enough procedure, but the way she looked at me seemed like she was hoping for more.

"Gaster Sans Junior." I told her.

Her eyes went wide and a hand crept up to cover her mouth as her wide eyes started to water.

"You okay girl?" I asked, worried about her reaction. Maybe it was because she had seen the news recently and just realized she had agreed to take on the son of a mass crime boss. "Shit." I muttered under my breath. "Look, if you don't want to take me on it's no biggie. I'll find someone else."

"No, no, that's not it at all. It's just," she paused, eyes not leaving my face. "I never thought that I would find you. And definitely not this fast if I did. I just moved back and this is only my third week being open."

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" I asked. The idea that people were already looking for me was not surprising, especially if that temmie monster was still spreading rumors, but she didn't seem to be the type to run in those circles, but you could never be too sure.

"It's Clara. We were best friends as kids. When I moved away we wrote for a while and then at some point I stopped receiving your letters." Her voice dropped as she looked away. "I figured you had just gotten bored with writing to someone you didn't know anymore or something."

My brow furrowed. The name sounded familiar and the mention of writing letters faintly stirred memories, but nothing I could clearly remember. "When was this? I faintly remember things, but nothing is jumping out to me." I explained to her.

"Oh, it was about eleven years ago or so. Oh, I know, here's a picture my mom took of us together. I was going to hang it on the wall behind the desk to remind me of her since she stayed back in Phoenix." She pulled an old photograph from under the counter and handed it over. In it was a small girl that vaguely looked like her now and a small skeleton that I guessed was myself from years ago. In the background I could recognize a fountain in central park.

Laughing I asked, "So that's us? Dang, I actually look kinda cute." I reached out, gently taking the photo from her to look at it closer.

"Yeah, my mom says we were inseparable. I have a few memories from back then and all the letters we exchanged. Whenever I feel I'm forgetting too much, I refer back to them to remind myself why I wanted to come back." She smiled sadly, looking down at the desk with watery eyes.

"I don't have anything to refer back to unfortunately. I have faint memories of having a friend as a kid, but I can't remember much. Your name does sound very familiar though." I offered.

"Didn't you keep any of the letters?" she asked, sounding confused.

"I ended up having a rough time of things for a few years. I've just started getting back on my feet recently. I don't have anything from when I was young." I offered. I didn't want to go into the full details, but felt compelled to share at least a small bit of detail with this girl who shared a past with me.

"Oh." She was at a complete loss for words now and I could see her searching for something to say. "Does you dad have anything somewhere. Actually, how is he? Mom asked me to check on him if I ended up finding either of you."

Well, apparently she _hadn't_ seen the news about my dad. Time to pop that balloon. "He's locked up. We don't really talk anymore. We haven't talked for a few years actually."

"Oh" again, she lost her voice.

"You're just striking out at every turn, sweetheart. Don't try probing too much into my past and just stick to what you remember. It's safer for you that way anyway. If you want more info on my father, check the news. They just bagged him recently so it shouldn't be too hard to find the case and reports." I dodged.

"Um, right. Sure." We just couldn't shake the awkwardness.

I handed back her photo. "So you still cool to give me some training in this magic stuff?" I asked, getting back to the reason I was here. Hopefully it would break the tension and turn the topic away from too personal questions.

"Oh!" she started, jumping and taking back the photo as she snapped out of her own thoughts. "Yeah, Saturday at seven, right?"

"You serious, you're fine training me even though we have this history. You sure you're not cracked in the head?" I made a show of looking around her head.

"Nope, I think that's you." She rolled off easily, then clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh God, I'm so sorry. I didn't,"

I cut her off with a laugh. "Okay, I walked right into that." I couldn't believe she rattled that off so easily and with a straight face.

She slowly smiled as she realized I wasn't offended. "I have no problem helping you learn to control you're magic." She kept her eyes down as she spoke slowly and carefully. "I chose to offer that service alongside my photography business and I swore I would help whoever came to me. There are too many people who refuse to teach and then turn around and place blame afterward when something goes wrong. Personal matters aside, this is a business transaction and I will treat it as such." That last part had a bit of bite and I had to force myself not to flinch. I know it wasn't directed at me, but it still hurt.

"Well, got any tips for me to get through the week?" I asked, half joking.

"Just breathe. Honestly, three quarters of controlling magic is in controlling your own emotions. If you can control your breathing and keep calm, keeping a hold on your magic so it doesn't flare up will be a piece of cake." She was all smiles again.

I smiled in return, finding her enthusiasm infectious. "You really are passionate about teaching. I think this is gonna work out. Thank you." I offered my hand to shake and close the deal.

She took it and shook, still smiling, until she looked down. Then her smile wavered for a second, almost taking on a melancholy look before returning to forced cheer. "Well, see ya in a week I guess."

"It's a date." I grinned and started toward the door, completely missing the way her face flushed.

"Okay then." There was a loud bang in the back that made both of us jump and she spun around. I heard her groan as a black and white reverse tuxedo cat came flying out of a room. "Fitzgerald! What did you do?" she yelled at the cat and after throwing an unsure glance at me, took off to the room. Outside of it, her shoulders slumped heavily.

"Everything okay?" I called.

"Yeah, he just knocked over some stuff. I'll get it later." She eased the door closed.

"Well, I'll get outta your hair then. Chao." I waved with one hand, pulled my hood back up, and made my way back into the chilly streets outside. The wind had picked up and the thought of calling Harold was extremely enticing, but I shoved it away and forced myself to start walking. It was only four city blocks to the subway, then another four to his apartment when I got off. I could handle the wind. I refused to go completely soft.

When I got home, Harold was up, though still just in boxers and a robe. "Hey man, I finally found a teacher. They're on the other end of town, but pretty cheap. I'll be going to see them every Saturday morning starting next week to start my lessons." I reported as I shed my by now chilled jacket and shoes.

"It's too early to be getting so much done." He groused and wrapped his robe closer to him as he flopped on the couch. He was so lazy on weekends.

"Harold, it's three in the afternoon. The day is over half over, I really didn't get all that much done." I was glad that all the talking with Ms. Cloud had helped me work on my speech. I wanted to keep the new addition to my mouth to myself for now. I figured it would be pretty easy considering most of them didn't even realize that I normally had a conjured tongue to begin with as Harold had pointed out but if I started slurring for no reason, they were sure to catch on pretty quick. Especially Lucy.

"Yeah, but you was up a _long_ time ago. Who gets up that early on the weekend if they don't have to?" he complained. It wasn't like I'd made him get up with me. "And you're just a teen. Seriously, what is wrong with you?"

Remembering the joke from earlier I replied, "I'm cracked in the head, that's what."

"That was horrible."

"But you're smiling." I retorted.

"Yeah, and I hate it." He groused and searched for the tv remote in the couch cushions.

"Have you had food yet?" I asked. I was starved.

"No, I just got up."

"Lazy bones." I quipped.

"Uh huh."

So I set about making pancakes and hash browns. They were a relatively easy breakfast that was filling and tasted good and were good for a meal at any time of the day. Once they were finished I plated the food and set it up on the table in front of the tv and forced a plate onto Harold's lap. He ate without even looking at it as his eyes flickered between awake and sleep, edging more to awake the more he ate.

"Thanks Gaz. That was pretty good. You didn't burn them this time." He laughed.

"Hey, I've been getting better!" I defended.

"Yeah, instead of charcoal flat-bread, I get pancakes. That is great, honest. Though I must say that you could stand to learn a few new recipes, even if my stomach may not survive it."

I nearly stuck my tongue out, but stopped myself and went to my other normal resort and just flipped him off as I gathered the dishes and took them to the sink to be washed. I heard him snort behind me before the tv started blaring the latest on the soccer game for today.

The week both flew and dragged by as I anticipated and worried over how my first magic lesson would go. From the looks from Lucy and Sharron kept throwing me, they were onto my less than legal additions and the lack of magic outbursts were proof enough that something had changed. While I had been improving my control without the new jewelry, the additions certainly helped. My improvements were only to the point of being able to usually dismiss the magic once it was noticed and to summon it on command. The outbursts I couldn't yet control completely, or really at all and the colors I had no clue as to their meaning.

I was reasonably worried about how it would go. Should I wear the inhibitors? Was she any good at magic training? Would I be able to learn enough in the two weeks before I had to leave for school? Finally Saturday came around and I had to go face music.


	6. Flames Everywhere

Chapter 6 – Flames Everywhere

Pushing open the heavy door, the scent of paper and cleaner hit me square in the face. All of the scenes that had been scattered around the small shop had disappeared, leaving a huge studio like area open in the front of the shop. On the desk were a pile of towels as well. Looking around I couldn't spy Ms. Cloud anywhere and couldn't hear any movement from the back. Shrugging, I took off my jacket and hung it on a peg beside the door. I also took this time to remove my ring and tongue ring while I wasn't being watched. I had decided that learning without the inhibitors was probably the smartest idea so that I wouldn't become dependent on them and my magic wouldn't just get stronger so the point that they would be nearly obsolete.

As I dropped the metal pieces into the pocket of my jacket I felt something slide along my leg and jumped, immediately feeling the gut wrenching tug that hadn't felt for the past week as my magic lit up sapphire all around me. There under my coat where I had just been standing was the cat, looking quite confused and like he was about to run. I released a breath shaking my head and took a step toward him. At the first step he bolted for the hallway, claws skittering on the hardwood floor as he slid around the desk and thumped into the wall. He skidded around another corner and seconds later I heard a shriek.

"Fitzgerald! What the hell?! The heck, what time is it even? Oh shit!" this was followed by a thump that I could feel through the floor. Seconds later the woman's head poked out from the door the cat had shot into. I was glaring at a now green flame that hovered on my shoulder. No matter how I breathed, they were not going out this time. I looked up, feeling her gaze.

"Am I early?"

"Ah, no, er, just give me a minute. I seem to have overslept." This was emphasized with her obvious bedhead.

"Sure hun. I'll keep trying to get these blasted shits to go away. Breathing ain't doing shit right now." I swatted at a shoulder flame, as if that would do anything with my hands flaming as well.

She giggled and popped back in her room. Five minutes later she came skidding out of the room, heading for another door. A hairbrush was buried in the wreck of her hair and she only had one sock, but it was enough to distract me and make the flames I had turn white as I tried to look away but still watch. She was kinda cute like this. The second that door closed and I heard water start to run, I realized that must be the bathroom.

Clearing my head, I started to try to put the flames out again, with no noticeable change. Finally I threw my hands up and gave up. I couldn't even do the most simple tasks. Walking over to my jacket I grabbed the ring and slipped it on. Immediately the flames dissipated, and from there I could put them out. Once out, I slipped it back off and shoved it back in the pocket. When I turned around, she was watching me with raised eyebrows.

"That's cheating. Don't use objects unless I give it the okay. Bring them back and try again without that. I'll be with you as soon as I can." She sashayed down the hall and turned the corner at the very back where I could see some of those scenery pieces.

'Damn, she has a really nice ass. Hell, she is really nice all around. No! That's not why I'm here. I'm here for the magic training only! Now get to work!' I conversed in my head. It was a habit I picked up on the street to help keep my sanity. Taking a deep breath I summoned my magic back to the level it had been before and the pull was almost sickening in my nonexistent gut. I then attempted to try putting it out again. That was slightly nauseating as well. I ended up sitting down hugging my abdomen.

"G? You still out here?" I heard her call.

Why was she calling me by my father's street name? Instead I called out "Here." Weakly. Wow, I really was weak.

"Oh God, G, are you okay? You can use that thing you used before if you need to. You weren't supposed to make yourself sick. Oh, where is it, I can grab it for you?" she was looking around as if I had it on me.

I pointed to my jacket and groaned as a shiver ran through me, tightening the pull in my gut. It felt like the magic was trying to come out even more. She darted across the shop and dug through the pockets, finally coming to the right one and pulling both pieces out. Without even looking at them she ran back and slid in a crouch to me, offering the pieces. My clouded mind laughed at how she was acting and that she was still in just one sock. With the hand I hand pointed with I fumbled in hers to grasp the ring and get it on. She seemed to realized how out of it I was and finally grabbed my hand and forced it on. The effect was immediate. The pulling in my gut disappeared and over half my flames disappeared. I didn't even try to dismiss the rest of them. I just focused on getting my breath back and calming my stomach.

"G?" I flinched at the name, but looked up. She looked worried. "Can you… are you able to put those out on your own?" she nodded to my other flames. They looked really weird now, flickering between a blackish green and white.

"Yeah," I rasped, and then dry swallowed to try and help. "Give me a minute. I don't know what happened. It just kept pouring out of me. It was like it was being pulled out. Now it is just stagnant, but I'm a little.." I quickly covered my mouth as a burp escaped me. I was never more glad of the biker gloves I had on at the moment. "Excuse me, I'm a little off. Give me a moment, sorry."

"Sure." While I tried to get my head back in order and calm my stomach I saw her watching and examining my remaining flames. As I slowly settled, they were bleeding into a calm yellow kind of flickering. "I've never seen magic change colors so often. Have they always changed colors?" she asked quietly, quite entrances with the flames movements.

Taking a breath and another swallow, I dismissed the rest of them and nodded. "Yeah, since they've appeared they always are all sorts of colors. I don't get it, but there it is." I shrugged weakly.

"Interesting. I wonder what it means. Usually a monster's magic is a reflection of their personality and stabilizes a color at a young age. You said that you didn't have access to your magic until recently though." She went quiet for a few moments thinking.

"You think that because I couldn't access it all those years it never settled?" I probed.

"Well, that would normally be my assumption, but I remember when we were kids, you used your magic back then occasionally, so it's not like you didn't have the capacity to use it all this time. I know you told me not to pry, but I'm going to need to know a bit more about why you couldn't get it stabilized before now, or why you couldn't use it. For you to suddenly not be able to access it, that just doesn't make sense with everything I've studied." She sat back on her heels, then got up to walk across the room. She came back with a bottle of water she had pulled from under the desk which she handed to me.

"Your memory is really good. I can't remember a time before recently that I was allowed to use my magic. The idea that I was allowed as a kid is a bit much for me to believe. Are you sure it was me that you knew and not some other skeleton?" there were so few of us that it was unlikely. There were only about six families in the city that I knew of. None of them shared our name though, so if she recognized me by my name then it was unlikely but worth a shot.

"No, it was you. I'm sure of it. The last time you used your magic around me it flickered different colors a little then. I had a diary back then and wrote about it. After my classes on monster magic, I realized that it probably due to it not settling yet, although it should have. But I also remembered that you rarely used your magic, so it may not have had a chance to. Looking back, it is strange how much your dad kept you from using it. Most parents encourage magic usage in their kids." She seemed lost in her musing again.

Sighing, I ran a hand over my face. I really didn't want to explain how my life had gone since she left, but if it was going to inhibit my training, it was looking like I was going to have to share a little. I missed having my old inhibitors. Life was so much easier before they broke. "Fine, here is the short version." Her head snapped up as I started speaking. "My magic has always been more powerful than normal. Due to that, my father felt that there was nobody who could teach me the amount of restraint I would need to keep it under control. He found a strong set of inhibitors and made sure I wore them at all times. I can't remember when I first started wearing them, but they broke recently and now my magic is out of control and I don't know how to put it in its place. That's why I never learned control. That's why I'm here. Maybe that's the reason it hasn't settled. Maybe it won't settle just because of how strong it is. I don't know much about it other than it's a nuisance. I got this ring and that thing recently to try to help keep it a bit more manageable so I could keep working, but they are nowhere near as powerful as the pieces I used to have. I can still summon or accidentally light up with these. I couldn't even feel my magic with my old set."

"Your dad suppressed your magic? That's inhumane and illegal! I've heard of people doing that, but," she went quiet shaking her head. Then she looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry G, you shouldn't have had to go through that. We will work through this and get you to where you won't need these anymore." Her hand clenched around the piece in her hand.

I just looked away ashamed that I had to even rely on them. I didn't want her pity, I just wanted to be done with all this. "Oh, and I'm gonna guess that 'G' is something you called me as a kid, please don't call me it now. That's what people called my dad."

"Oh, sorry. What would you prefer to be called? I can stick with Gaster if it would make you more comfortable?"

Hearing my full name from her sounded wrong after being called G all day, but the name rubbed me wrong. I wasn't G, but it felt wrong to have her call me by my name. "I don't know. My friends call me Gaz or Gaster." I didn't want her calling me GJ either, that was my street name and I didn't want to get her mixed up in that.

"Well you can think about it. For now let's just keep working on your magic lesson, okay?" she stood and offered me a hand.

I grinned and nodded, accepting her offer and stood.

"Take the ring off for now and try summoning a small amount of magic. You don't need to bring out a huge amount. The more you bring forth, the harder it can be to dismiss." She instructed.

I slipped the ring into my jeans pocket and focused on summoning a single ball of flame in the palm of my hand like I had in Jerico's shop. I had been practicing this small bit in my room at night in an attempt to get some control on my own. It didn't always work, like now. The sapphire flame appeared in my palm like I wanted, but then started to climb up my arm. I pushed for it to stop. It reached my shoulder and finally stopped. I released a breath as it finally listened. I looked up disgruntled and shrugged.

"How much were you aiming for?" she asked with a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Just a little flame over my palm." I growled, still pushing for the flame to go back to my palm.

"Huh." She walked over and before I could react she caught the end of the tendril on my shoulder and somehow started to unwrap it from my arm and coil it into a ball. Once she got to my wrist, she took the ball and put her hand on the other side of the flame in my hand. "Take a deep breath." She instructed. I did, and at the same time she shoved the ball into the flame over my palm.

"Aheeee!" I shrieked "What the fuck was that!" I was seeing stars and felt like I'd just been cuffed over the head. I blinked a few times to try to clear my vision. The pulsing that came from the flame in my hand was stronger than it had been before, but I could feel how and where it was pulling from in my palm now, where before it seemed to pull a little from everywhere and nowhere.

"I made the magic anchor to that spot so it wouldn't travel. Part of the reason I'm able to be a magic teacher is I have the innate ability to manipulate monster magic. I went to school to get training on it and now I'm able to do stuff like that. You should be able to handle it a bit better for right now until you dismiss it ."

I tried shrinking the amount that was there, and watched as the flame shrunk, then I put a little more into it and watched it build a little. I bounced my hand a few times and the flame acted like a ball I was tossing, which was what I had imagined it would do in my mind. Grinning, I played with it few more minutes watching the sapphire fade into a purple color. "This is awesome." I whispered to myself. I didn't see it, but she grinned.

"Alright, enough playing for now. Extinguish it and try to summon it again. Remember how it feels now and try to replicate it yourself." She said with a slight laugh as I tossed the flame up toward the ceiling.

I closed my hand before it came back down and it went out easy as pie. I looked over to her grinning and nodded. I opened my palm again and focused on the center where I had been able to feel the pooling of magic around the edges of my palm-hole and with a deep breath gave a hard push. The magic exploded out, sending me flying back into the wall behind me and her tumbling away from me. It didn't stick around. I gasped, trying to breathe and when my vision came back and I saw her sitting on the other side of the room holding her head. I tried to push myself to my feet, which didn't work, so I just crawled over to her. "You alright hun? I don't know what happened. I've never created an explosion like that."

Keeping a hand to her head, she looked up smiling. "You really do have a lot of power stored. Dang. Maybe we need to move a bit slower. That was a good job though. You managed to focus it otherwise you might have torn yourself apart with that much force."

My eyes widened at that. "Are you serious?"

She nodded. "That, and this," she gestured around at the slight blackening of the wood on the floor where we had been and a few marks on the walls, "is why people often don't try to teach adults. Untrained adults are much more powerful and dangerous than children. I felt a second before it loosed what was going to happen to I was able to contain it a bit, but ordinary trainers would not be so lucky. That blast unhindered could have wiped out this building and one or both of us may not have survived it. We will definitely need to work on measuring how much energy you put out at once."

I nodded solemnly. The idea that I could have leveled a building or killed someone accidentally hit home strongly. Maybe dad had a point in restraining my magic.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm the one that pushed for you to try it. I knew that once you had a focus point the amount you'd put out would be stronger than normal. Don't blame yourself for this. It was my own recklessness. I was testing limits. I wanted to see just how strong you were."

I looked up sharply, a glare forming. "I told you my magic was blocked due to it being too strong and you tried to test it just because you could?" I snapped.

"Yeah, sorry. I had to know what I was dealing with. Don't worry, I won't do it again unless I ask you." She held up her hands in apology.

"I wasn't even putting out all my strength there. I just pushed a little harder. I barely scraped what I have. I can feel it coursing in my bones, through my fingers, from my feet up through my skull. I have a lot more where that came from. If you truly want to test my limits, we should probably not be around people or buildings." I said lowly, still angry at being tricked into nearly hurting her.

"Oh." Was all she said. When I looked back up to her, her eyes were on the floor looking at something I couldn't see.

The bell on the door suddenly rang as it opened and a man with a young girl holding on his hand walked in. He looked at the two of us, "This is Magical Photography, right? I was hoping to get an appointment set up for some pictures? Is now okay?"

"Oh, yes, ah, right this way. One moment please G." she gasped and tried to stand, only to stumble. I caught her hand as she nearly fell away from me, stabilizing her.

"Careful, take your time." I looked at my watch. "My time is a bit past anyway."

She managed to stumble to the desk and glanced at me worried. I slipped my ring on and some of dizziness faded as the magic pumping through my bones eased. As she talked dates, times, and costs with the man, I slowly forced myself to my feet and looked over to watch them. The little girl's eyes were huge as they looked at me. I grinned and waved a little. She hugged the man's leg and buried her face in his pants, then shyly looked around his leg at me. When she gripped him, he looked over his shoulder and glared at me, putting a hand on her back. My smile dimmed as he brought me to the very real reality that not everybody liked the monster minority. I let my hand drop and moved to the door to grab my jacket and pulled it on. I stayed to the side until they finished their business and once they left I stepped up to pay for my lesson.

"One seventy-five, right? I asked, pulling out my wallet and starting to count the bills. I still wasn't used to using a bank or card.

"Let's make it one twenty-five since I made you wait and I wasn't ready. It's only fair." She countered.

"You also worked with me past time, so that made up for it." I handed her the full one seventy-five.

She sighed and accepted it, counting it to double check the amount and wrote it down in a notebook she had beside the calendar. "Thank you. So I guess I'll see you next week?" I nodded. "Keep practicing summoning a _small_ amount, don't push hard, just a small amount. The finer you can get and more precise. The better your control will get. Eventually we can get to dealing with larger applications. Just be careful."

"I will. Thank you. Also, I think you still have my other piece. I tapped my ring to get the meaning across."

"Oh, oh! I'm so sorry. I completely forgot." She dug it out of her pocket and handed it over.

"Thank you. Do you mind if I use your bathroom real quick to put this in. I haven't tried putting it in blind yet."

"Oh, yeah, right this way. She led me to the room she had gone into earlier and let me have my privacy.

I rinsed the piece under water and then ran it through my ecto-tongue. It felt weird, but the disappearance of the magic flowing in my bones was worth it. If I really focused, I could still feel it deep in my soul, but it wasn't right under the surface anymore. I ran my tongue around my mouth, getting used to the feeling again and clicked it along all my teeth. Nodding, I made my way out and thanked her again.

"See you next week." She smiled and I made my way out. Her smile was pretty and she was really nice, if a little reckless.

I got home and Harold was actually at the stove and dressed. "You're up early." I commented as I toed off my shoes.

"Meh, some cop came around asking about a guy who goes by the name GJ and may have been part of an arson across town in a scent shop. Told him I didn't know anybody like that." The look he gave me told me he wanted info.

I put up my hands. "I had no part in any arson. I don't go around burning down buildings and shops." I defended.

"Maybe not, but it was a day after you came home with that ring and your magic started acting up less after that. It practically disappeared after that thing in your mouth." His face looked disgusted as he brought up my piercing. "I'm willing to bet that those aren't just for looks"

"Fine, they are inhibitors, but I'm able to remove these myself. I needed something so I could continue to work and not jeopardize everyone. I promise that I am taking classes now on control for the magic though. I don't know how much it's gonna help, but I am trying that as well and she knows about the inhibitors." I told him.

"I still don't approve of using them. They didn't have anything to do with that fire though, right?" he did seem worried about that. "They guy I got these from has plenty of enemies. That is not the first place he's had that got destroyed in one form or another." I shrugged.

Harold groaned and went back to his cooking.

"What you making?" I asked as I flopped on the couch, not bothering the tv.

"Eggs, why, you hungry?" he asked.

"Actually, yeah, I'm completely starved. That lesson really took it outta me."

He looked over at me, I was ready to pass out where I was. "What's up with you hand?" he asked.

I looked down and noticed for the first time a black mark across a couple of my knuckles. I had taken off my gloves and on my summoning hand the edge of where the glove had been was all blackened as well. "My magic blew up a bit. I didn't even notice the marks. I'll go get cleaned up."

"You okay?" he called after me as I went into the bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was more worried about the teacher. She got thrown hard." I yelled back. "We both came out okay though." When I came back out he was still shaking his head.

"You're dangerous, you know that. The sooner you get this under control, the sooner everyone will breathe easy." He laughed to show he was only half joking.

"I'm trying." I grumped.

He looked over his shoulder. "We know. I was only joking Gaz. Take it easy."

I grumbled some more, but finally turned on the tv to check the latest on sports and news. Just another day at the apartment.


	7. Blackouts and Viruses

Chapter 7 – Blackouts and Viruses

As I got around for bed, I couldn't help but remember how my magic had blown up last week. I had been afraid to practice at home in case I ended blowing up Harold's apartment. This was his home and I doubt the landlord would be too understanding about having a giant hole in place of one of the walls three stories up. Because of that, I had made up the excuse I wanted to get in some extra exercise or wanted to go for a walk after work to disappear for hours after work.

At times it seemed like Harold acted more like a mother than a roommate, but it was his apartment and I was coming in at all hours. There were days I had a hard time getting up with the alarm for work. I had taken the walks for legit reasons though. I would catch a taxi, bus, and or train to the far side of town, then walk the beach a good distance until I couldn't see anybody and knew I was well away from people. Once that was done, I would remove my inhibitors and for an hour or more I would practice summoning small amounts of my magic, focusing it, and dismissing it. I found out on the first night that focusing first and summoning second left me a lot more winded, but took a lot less effort. I barely had to put any effort into bringing my magic into being if I focused a spot for it to manifest. It also didn't had to manifest on or around me. I was able to manifest my little fireball up to twenty feet away I found and usually tried to keep it at that distance just so that if it did blow up again, I wouldn't get knocked silly and could make a quick getaway if someone came looking. It hadn't blown up yet and I really didn't want to make the trip out to the beach tonight. I had class tomorrow morning and wanted to be well rested for it.

Deciding, I nodded and started to carefully place all my focus onto the very tip of my right index finger. Right before I began to get tunnel vision I remembered that I still had my inhibitors and broke from my exorcise. The last thing I wanted was to bust those. I quickly pulled the ring off and placed it on my wardrobe, shortly followed by my piercing. Taking a deep breath I started again, focusing and remembering to breath. I could now feel the pulse of my magic running through all my bones just looking for an outlet. I imagined a hole the size of a pinprick opening on the very tip of my finger, allowing a very small amount of my magic to come out and coalesce into a small flaming ball that hovered just over the digit. When it reached the size of a tennis ball, I cut off the flow and it stopped growing. I could still feel the magic pushing to get out, but it couldn't and stayed where I wanted. This was the hard part because I had to control my magic in two different ways. I had to keep the largest portion at bay and within myself while a very small, minute amount had to exist outside of myself and receive commands without doing whatever it wanted, like say, blowing up.

I made my tiny ball of sapphire fire move from one spread finger to the next, before making it travel through the air slowly from one hand to the next. Normally I would move it from the top of one sand dune to the next, but moving it this close to me was a bit nerve racking and made it that much harder. Once it made it to my other hand I moved it over each of the fingers on that hand. Slowly and carefully I adjust my gaze to the wall and willed the ball to move over to the wall. It couldn't go too fast or it might hit it or go through it. Right now there wasn't such thing as too slow, so I took my time. It had managed to go about three quarters around the room when Harold pushed open my door, looking an absolute mess.

"I don't know what your-" He stopped when he saw the ball of sapphire flame mere feet from his face. "Shit. That explains what. I'm, I'm gonna go. Come see me when you are done please." His face had gone completely white. He backed up and carefully closed the door.

After that interruption, my focus was very disturbed. I had thought I had it down pretty well, but I could see that was not the case now. The magic in my bones pushed even harder than before, leaking out in little bits that showed up as small balls of flame all over my frame and the ball I had been working on started growing. I tried to put it out, but the magic just kept growing. By the time I realized I couldn't stop it, I was already getting feint. I stumbled the step or two to my dresser and grabbed for the ring, and slammed it on. Instantly my magic slowed its outward flow, but didn't stop. Just as I feared, the more I practiced, the stronger it got. I forced myself to take deep breaths and focus on the flow within myself more than that which was leaving me. I had found that correcting the flow in myself could sometimes stop the outward flow. Passing out stopped everything, as I had found out on Tuesday, but I didn't want to do that now. Thankfully I managed to stop the flow going out after slowing the flow within myself, but nearly lost control again when I opened eyes I hadn't realized I closed and found little fireballs on every surface of my room in sizes ranging from golf balls to basket balls. I evaluated where the focal points were for me right now and was thankfully there was still just the one on my finger. If I was correct, I cancel that and all these go out. If I was wrong, they all blow up. It was a make or break. I sent a prayer to whoever may be listening and canceled the focus. My room instantly went from a blue illumination to pitch black. I let a breath go and put in my piercing again. The thrumming within my bones disappeared and I went out to see what Harold had been so upset about.

When I stepped out of my room, the first thing I noticed was there were no lights on at all. I tried the switch and it wouldn't work. Had I accidentally tripped a breaker. That had happened a few times, but not in a long while. Keeping a hand on the wall so I would know when I entered the next room, I was surprised to still be in complete darkness. Normally some city light would leak around his blackout curtains. I couldn't see anything.

"Uh, Harold. You out here? What is going on?" a short shriek was enough of a giveaway that he was in the room and not expecting me.

"Geez Gaz, you scared the bejezus out of me. Make some noise when you move would you?"

"Sorry man. Hey, so what's going on. Is the whole borough in a black out for some reason?"

"Worse, this whole half of the island. I was just coming to see if you were messing around with your magic again cause my alarm clock kept going off and the time kept changing. A few minutes after that, our apartment went dark and it spread from there."

"Shit." I had caused a multi-borough black out cause I couldn't hold my focus.

"Has this happened anywhere else recently?" I asked, half hoping it was a recurring problem, and half hoping it had not happened near the area I had been practicing.

"Yeah, last Tuesday come to think of it, down near the peninsula. Why? Wait, is that where you've been going on those walks late at night? Did you cause all of this?" I could hear the disbelief in his voice.

"Um, I think so. This past Tuesday I was really late cause I got startled by a sand snake and lost my focus and ended up passing out for a few hours. I thought I was far enough out that it wouldn't affect anybody on the beach and I didn't want to go all the way out there. I didn't realize I could affect this large of an area."

"This is just cause you lost your focus? So this is technically my fault for interrupting whatever you were doing in there? What were you doing by the way?"

"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have been practicing in the house. You've asked me not to use magic here until I get a handle on it and I did. I was just doing a focusing exercise to practice control. I'm supposed to do it every day."

"And I was being such a pain about you going out late. Sorry man. Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"

"I didn't want you to worry. You get skittish every time I so much as bring up the subject." I was getting snappy, I knew it too. I had fucked up again and all because I was lazy.

"Uh, this may be out of line for me to request, but would you mind summoning one of those little balls so we can have some light until they turn on the lights?"

"Seriously dude? One moment you are scared of it, the next you want it. Would you make up your damn mind already?" I wanted light anyway so I wasn't just yelling at the darkness so I focused and summoned a softball sized ball of fire that flickered green. It lit the walls in a sickly shade that made me think of all those radioactive horror movies. "Happy?" I snapped. He was curled in a ball on the sofa.

"Does it have to be green?" he whined.

It turned black, but somehow still put off a faint flickering light. "You know I can't control the damn colors of it Harold. Give me a fucking break. You wanted me to learn to control it, when I'm trying dammit and this is what I get for trying. We get what we get from it." I was practically snarling. The flame had become laced with green the more I yelled.

"Sorry, sorry." He was practically gasping apologies.

I could only imagine what I may look like since my tongue and eyes always matched my magic. I growled and walked over to the kitchen where we had candles just for when the lights went out. I couldn't find matches so figured I would try to light them with my magic. I was surprised with it actually worked and in an instant my black flames evaporated into a bright violet, almost blinding me. "Fuck." I gasped trying to clear my vision. When I finally did clear again my flame had turned yellow with bits of purple occasionally still flickering through it and the occasional streak of green. I wasn't going to complain about the color change though. It made seeing easier. I lit a few more candles and placed them strategically around on the floor so they were out of the way but lit up where the walls where and allowed us to see what was around us. Once that was done, I put out my flames before they caused more problems.

"I thought they couldn't burn stuff?" Harrold asked. He had finally uncurled and had watched me finish getting the candles lit and set.

"Apparently they can if I want them to." I replied.

"Great. More surprises."

"Try living with them being right under your skin, then you can complain." I groused.

"Guess that's true. Sorry about earlier. I'm just not used to all the magic hoodoo voodoo stuff I guess." He apologized.

"Maybe you shoulda thought of that before shacking up with me." I shot back, but I was back in good humor now that we had some sort of light.

"If I hadn't you would have had to deal with one of the girls. Now that would have been real Hell. I mean, can you imagine living with either of them?" We both shivered from the mental image of the hormonal roller coaster that came with living in the same house as women.

We bantered back and forth for about another hour, then turned to playing Rumi by candle light. Halfway through the third game, about four hours after the lights had went out they came back on, blinding us. We blew out all the candles, killed the lights and both went to bed. Harrold hadn't been able to sleep before due to a minor fear of the dark and needing his floor light to be able to sleep. I stayed up just to keep him company, but now I was exhausted and had to be up for the lesson in the morning. "I hate magic." I groaned right before I fell asleep in my bed with the reassuring light of the city glowing once more from under my curtains.

Shooting straight up with a gasp, I choked on air for a second before I remembered where I was shut the screaming goat on my phone off before it woke Harold. Flopping back into bed, I was so tempted to doze right back off and just skip my lesson, but after last night I knew I really needed to go. Groaning, I rolled over and forced myself to get up and go through the daily morning grind of getting around. I grabbed a set of strawberry pop-tarts on my way out the door, finally awake from moving around but now running a bit later than I normally would when leaving. She may be halfway across town, but I still tried to walk there. Today I would have to take the subway, but it couldn't be helped. Just before I pushed open the door to the shop though, I got a call. I didn't recognize the number and figured it was probably just some advertiser and canceled it and walked in. She was at the desk this morning and was glaring at the phone like it had just said something quite insulting. The way her nose crinkled was too cute.

She looked up as I entered and a look like pity crossed her face instantly, confusing me. "I'm sorry G, er, Gaster. Oh fooey, all I keep getting in my head is the name I used for you as a kid. It just keeps bouncing around my head and echoing in my ears. Can't I please just call you G for old time's sake? Ah, anyway", she cut off any answer that I might have made, "I don't think I'll be able to do your lesson today. That freak blackout last night and earlier in the week both hit me and now my computer is acting all weird and giving me weird messages. I'm gonna have to get it looked at and the tech I booked with only had a slot available during your training session. He's booked as well with fixing these blackouts problems. Sorry."

"Let me take a look at it. I'm no computer wiz, but I know a few things." I may not have like the spider lady who ran the treasury of the monster gang, but she had taught me how to find and how to plant computer bugs right before I got the boot. I think they had been planning on promoting me but then my shit father got me jumped and out. I completely ignored her complaints about my being picky with my name.

"Um, sure, I guess. It's my personal computer so I thankfully doesn't have any client data on it other than stuff I transferred to study further on, and that was only on you with your magic levels. They are much more erratic than I gave them credit for. I have sensors around the shop and when I checked the readings, they were quite a bit different than I was expecting. Um, sorry, it's this way." She cut her rambling off quickly as she pushed a strand of hair back in place and out of her face and led me into the back of the shop. "Thanks for offering to help as well. I should have called earlier, but well, it just started acting up this morning and that's when I heard we had another blackout last night."

"It's no problem. It's my fault anyway. Both blackouts are actually my fault. I lost my focus and my magic got out of my control. I managed to catch it last night, but not before it shorted over half the city." I explained as I followed and tried not to stare at her hips as they swung with every step. If it wasn't her hips, it was her hair and how it flowed between her shoulder blades. My exhaustion had to be really getting the best of me.

She stopped and turned to look at me, eyes wide. I nearly walked right into her, lost in thought about how nice she looked and how my magic was such a pain. "The blackouts happened because of you? Now that I have a hard time believing. What where you doing, trying to do, create a new ecosystem or something?"

"No, I was just practicing summoning a small amount of magic and moving it like you suggested. I didn't want to risk it blowing up in the apartment so I was practicing down on the beach last Tuesday and lost my focus. It knocked me out and by the time I came to, they already had power back on so I didn't hear about it until my roommate brought it up during this last one, which also happened literally seconds after he busted into my room since I was too lazy to go out to the beach last night. I was practicing and lost my focus. My magic rushed out of me just like I did here and my inhibitors didn't do much to help. I finally caught it, but the damage had already been done. Once is a coincidence, twice, not so much."

She looked at me quizzically, trying to see if I was fibbing or not. I don't know what she decided, but finally she sighed and waved for me to follow her. "Computer is this way." was all she said.

I couldn't stop the sigh that escaped me as I followed. When we got to the back room, I saw all the scenes I had seen on the first day organized and stacked around the room, floor to ceiling. In one corner was a small desk and laptop on it with a flickering screen. When I got closer to look at it, I went cold. This was definitely a virus, one that was planted and meant to be found, specifically by me. The normal screen showed some background that my teacher had put up along with some icons, but pop-up windows flashed up then disappeared seconds later, remaining just long enough to be read. Most were encoded, those that weren't were cheap ads for even cheaper drugs. Marijuana, heroin, acid, all stuff you could find on the streets. The encrypted stuff was much more illegal, there the pop-ups containing hit offers and the locations of new sales of life, i.e., humans or monsters as pets or slaves. Then there was the pop-ups that got to me. The language my father signed in would blip in one sentence increments across the screen. It took me a few minutes to get the full message, but when I did, I didn't know what to do.

It read "Gaster Sans Jr, grandfather, AZ, firebird, asap, brng CC, sry"

It was a matter of a few minutes once I deciphered the message to me to rid the computer of the virus. It was a simple one, but none the less terrifying for it. I didn't even know I had any living relatives outside of my father and here was one contacting me via my magic teacher's computer. The chances that I would be the one to check it were so small. Who was this person and who was CC? Either way, a summons like this shouldn't be ignored or the next one could be deadly. The underworld did not like to be kept waiting and that was definitely an underworld message.

"Wow, and I was prepared to spend like three hundred dollars to get that fixed. Thanks a ton, you are a life saver." Miss Cloud sighed right behind me and dropped a hand on my shoulder.

Startled, I spun wide eyed with a fist already pulled and slipping into a braced stance as I fell back into my old habits. I didn't even notice the pull in my gut as sapphire flames blossomed all around the shop and around my fist.

"Shit. Sorry G. I didn't mean to… are you okay?" she looked frightened for the first time since I had met her.

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and carefully corrected my posture until I was standing normally, though I couldn't convince my fists to unfurl. Another few breaths put out the flames. I still had both my inhibitors on and my magic had flashed up just as bad as it had before I had gotten them. "I'm fine. Just a bit jumpy I guess." I lied. I looked toward the exit, pondering on who CC could be and completely forgetting about the magic class I was supposed to be here for.

"CC? Like initials?" my teacher suddenly asked.

My gaze snapped back to her.

"You asked who CC was. G, what is going on. Ever since I showed you the computer you have been tense. Now you are spacing out and talking to yourself and you nearly attacked me just for touching your shoulder. Talk to me. You are scaring me." She _did_ look close to tears.

I made one last look at the exit, then glanced back at her desk where the now perfectly normal, virus free computer sat. Then I took notice of the card next to it. It was the card for this shop. Her name was printed clearly on the bottom of it. Clara Cloud. CC. I looked back to her then to the card. "Fuck." I swore and swung, hitting the wall hard. I could feel the impact in my shoulder and the dent in the wall matched my knuckle bones.

"G! I rent here!" she scolded.

"Miss Cloud, we gotta talk. And I need you to listen very close." I growled, unable to face her.

"G?" she really sounded scared now. That was probably a good thing.

"And stop calling me that! You said my name echoed in your head, memories from when we were kids repeat inside your mind, fine. Then call me Echo. I'm not who you knew, just like an echo is not like the original sound, just similar. Now, I originally told you not to ask about my past since we split. That virus is part of my past coming back to haunt my present and it looks like you are about to become part of it whether you like it or not so you had better listen well. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand. I don't understand at all. I will listen, but right now I don't understand anything. Also" she grabbed my shoulder and spun me around harder than I would have thought she could. "Don't you ever threaten me!" she yelled in my face.

Instinct kicked in and I slugged her in the gut, effectively dropping her. Then my mind caught up. "Shit" I hit a knee immediately. "Sorry, I swear I didn't mean that. Reflex. I'm not used to being grabbed. Are you okay?" I wanted to try to help her up so she could breathe, but didn't know if it was okay for me to touch her.

It took almost a minute before she could manage to speak again. "Damn you can hit. Let's restart." She put her back to a wall as she sat up and looked me square in the face. "Take a seat and start talking." She pointed to an open spot on the floor directly in front of her.

To say I was taken aback is an understatement, but I did as I was instructed as this was what I needed anyway. For the next three hours, I relayed my entire life, as far back as I could remember, to her. I hid nothing like I had hidden parts from my coworkers. If she was going to be dragged into the darkness with me, she needed to know what she was up against. I then explained about the virus on her computer.

She took it all in with a blank face, listening just like she said she would. When I finished she asked one question. "So we are going to Phoenix to meet somebody that you have never heard of or met before because my computer had a virus?"

"That is your only question!?" I asked back incredulously.

"Oh, I have plenty of questions, but that one seems the most important right now." She responded way too calmly.

"Well, then, yeah, I suppose we are. It is too dangerous for only one of us to go, and that was a deliberate message to me. I want to talk to my dad before I go though, if it is even possible. Maybe he can give me some pointers, I don't know. I haven't even seen him in three years." I was still amazed she was taking everything so well and that I had other family. I mean sure, they were in the mafia too, but heck, I wasn't alone.

"Finding your dad shouldn't be too hard. Once we find the prison, we can just call to see if he can receive visitors. If not, no harm no foul. Also, I just happen to have two timeless tickets back to Arizona. My mom got them for me for whenever I wanted to come home. I doubt she thought I'd be using them for this though."

"That is just too good of a setup to be chance." I thought aloud.

"My mother isn't mafia." She glared at me, daring me to challenge her.

"Doesn't mean she doesn't unknowingly have mafia connections. She was friends with my father, wasn't she. You don't get out that easy. Not unless you die or disappear. You may be left alone for a while, but there is no out. I thought I could get out. Now this happens. Fuck my life." I groaned.

"Your life! What about mine? I come back to New York to find an old friend, find him but he doesn't remember me, and then he turns out to be a criminal."

I couldn't help but flinch. "I can't help that. I'm trying to go straight. Was even trying to get into college in the fall." I whined mostly to myself.

She softened at that. "I'm sorry G. We will work through this. We are both stressed."

"It's Echo, remember?" I smiled wanly.

We both jumped as my phone let out an evil cackling signaling I had a text, then laughed. I checked it, figuring it would be from Harold. It wasn't, it was an unknown number. "Check shop mailbox." Was all it said. Frowning, I pushed myself up from the floor and made my way to the front of the store. I didn't see anybody outside through the storefront windows as I crossed the studio floor and opened the door. I pushed open the door, fully expecting there to be someone there for some reason. When I saw nobody, I checked the mailbox. There was one envelope, unmarked and very light. I took it back inside and showed Miss Cloud and crossed back to her planning desk. Carefully I slid a carpal under the paper and ripped it open. Two papers fell out, one was a check, the other a regular printer sheet with very neat print on it. "That will cover the rent." Was printed in the center. It wasn't signed, there was nothing else to elaborate. I glanced down at the check and sucked in a breath. It certainly would cover rent. That was a seven digit check.

"I think that whoever my grandfather is, he has some major pull. He apparently is covering your rent. Must really want us to move." I showed her the check.

Her eyes widened. "That covers the entirety of my year's rent plus profits. How long are we gonna be gone?"

"I don't know. Must be some time. Can you look up the info for my dad and I'll call my roommate to update him. We will have to stop by his apartment to get some of my stuff."

"Right." She strode back to her computer in the back, leaving me in the studio.

Things were moving way to fast. "Harold is gonna flip his shit." I groaned to nobody in particular. Fitzgerald meowed pathetically from the corner. I pulled out my phone and text Harold, just letting him know that I was making an unplanned trip out of state for an unknown amount of time due to a family emergency. I also asked him if he would be willing to take care of a cat.

His response was rather quick, but a look at the clock told me that it was already past noon. He had probably just gotten up, but once up, he was glued to his phone. "Not very convincing Gaz, I can take care of the cat, but please tell me what is really up."

I grimaced. "Really is fam. Sort of a summons. It's like my past, can't tell you more without you getting in danger. Please be careful and let the girls know. Will be stopping by for clothes then be gone."

His reply took a couple minutes this time. Probably messaging the girls first. "We don't like it, but fine. Keep in touch if you can. Don't fuck up your life too much kid." Yeah, he messaged the girls.

Almost simultaneously I got a text from each of them. "KEEP IN TOUCH" they both messaged. Seriously, did girls run on a frequency or something?

I heard Miss Cloud speaking in the back of the store and started to make my way into the back.

"Are you absolutely sure he can't receive any visitors? Not even family." She sighed, obviously aggravated. "Fine, whatever. Just so you know, this is bullshit!" she snapped into the receiver of the landline and slammed it back down in the cradle.

"I didn't even know those were still used." I joked. "No luck?"

She smiled but shook her head. "On your end?"

"My roommate agreed to take care of your cat and although they don't like it, they wish me luck and safe travels. The normal stuff." I shrug

Nothing about this is normal." She said dubiously.

I just laugh and follow her as she goes to her room and pulls a suitcase from under the twin bed she has in the small area. It was more of a closet than a room. She doesn't even open it, but rather just drags it out into the hall and walks into the bathroom. She comes back out a few minutes later with a smaller bag. "All set." She already sounds weary.

It's a fight to get fat Fitzgerald into his case, but then we are hauling him and her luggage out to her car, which was parked in the alley on the other side of the shop. From there we drove to my apartment, I grabbed what little I had, introduced her to Harold, she explained specifics about the cat's diet, and we were off to the airport. The flight we needed just happened to be delayed (how coincidental) just long enough to let us get on board before leaving. Then we were on our way to Arizona. I didn't even know what to expect and the stress from the day had me exhausted. I'm not sure which of us fell asleep first.


	8. The Phoenix Mafia

Chapter 8

The Phoenix Mafia

Five and a half hours later the plane landed in a Phoenix airport. We had left around noon and arrived at two thirty, then it took another hour to get our luggage. When we finally left the airport, Clara insisted that we stay at her parents place as neither of us had the funds for a hotel to stay at. I argued that her place would be too easy to track down, but I did have to agree that our funds for this trip were negligible. I finally agreed for lack of anything better to do at the moment and we hailed a cab to ride out to her parents place.

The ride was quiet for about five minutes as we both powered our phones up and got caught up on messages we missed during the flight. That is until she gasped, a nearly inaudible sound but one I heard none the less. A glance over showed her eyes wet with tears and a hand clamped over her mouth as she read something on her phone. With a glance at our drive to make sure he wasn't paying attention, I scooted closer to her to see what was distressing her. It took all of a few seconds to understand. The message was apparently from her mother who was telling her that her father hadn't come home for the past few days and she was worried. It also detailed that strange vehicles and people she hadn't see before had been talking to him about two weeks prior and he had been agitated with them and wouldn't tell her anything about it.

Clara looked up at me. "My father…" she couldn't say any more, but could see that I was reading the message.

My brows furrowed. We were invited out here, then at the same time her father goes mysteriously missing. It was too coincidental.

She looked out the window to organize her thoughts and track our progress through the city. "Hey, this isn't the way. Sir!" she smacked the cabbie's seat. "This is the complete wrong side of town. Where are you taking us?"

"Your presence has been requested by the boss. I was sent to pick the two of you up and drive you to his location."

I looked up sharply and through the mirror saw that we had some human punk in a green shirt driving.

"Not many get personal invitations. You are either very lucky or in big trouble pal. Now don't cause any trouble and you won't be harmed. I was told to deliver you in as good condition as was possible." The look in his eyes begged for us to fight back and from the way the girl beside me was tensing, she was ready to give it to him.

I put my arm across her chest. "We will go without a struggle." I ground out. His gaze became aggravated and out of the edge of my vision I saw her disbelieving stare.

"Why G?" she whispered at me.

"He wants us to fight. I have no doubt this car is rigged with the proper measures to subdue at least one of us. If we don't fight then there is a better chance of us having the upper hand when we get where we are going." I explained. I didn't bother whispering. There were probably recording devices planted in here too. "While we are in this cab, don't talk. We will get where we are going soon enough. People in this line of business don't like to wait." I glared pointedly at our driver. He narrowed his eyes and grumbled under his breath.

The rest of our ride was quiet but tense as our driver weaved in and out of traffic. When we pulled up to an old-style Radisson hotel with two bouncers dressed in black on either side of the entry doors.

Our driver then spoke up once more. "Go talk to those men, tell them you are here for the Senior Service. Follow their directions. Going anywhere else is not really recommended. Boss owns this whole end of town." He unlocked our doors to let us out.

"What do you mean he owns this end of town? That's ridiculous for one person to own that much." Clara objected.

He leaned around his seat. "You ain't too bright are you?" he teased.

"She has had the pleasure of living in the light." I sighed as I opened my door. "Come on. We want to keep moving. Stay close to me." I told her.

"A gold-path chick eh? That's hot." He looked her up and down. After that she was quick to get out of the car, followed by his cackling.

I felt a pull in my spine and without warning the car jumped ten feet forward. Thankfully she was already out. The sudden movement slammed the door shut though.

The driver put his hand out the window and flipped us off as he peeled out down the street and around a corner.

"That was accidental, right?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah, completely. Can't bring myself to feel bad for it though. He was an ass." I answered as I unconsciously pulled her up beside me by her shoulder, holding her close.

"Not very convincing." She laughed and pushed me off lightly before settling next to me. "So we are going in?"

I glanced down at her and saw the uncertainty on her face clearly. "Yeah, now we go in. Don't speak unless spoken to. Since you are one of those who have always abided by the law I don't see you being accepted too kindly. I'm not even sure why they wanted you to come. I have a bad feeling it involves your father. Let's go."

At that she shoved away from me. "How many times do I have to tell you that my family doesn't have any nefarious ties?"

"Hmph." I walked up to the guards and provided them with the code.

"Elevator straight through, hit the red button then go to floor thirteen." He instructed.

"Got it." I grabbed her hand and started inside. She resisted at first, then followed.

Once we were inside she was practically glued to my side and she seemed to shrink into herself. On the other hand, I stood tall and walked as if I had every right to be here and possibly even owned the place. All the people scattered through the lobby sitting on chairs chatting or at tables with small meals watched curiously. I didn't escape my notice that when I pressed the red button one or two nodded while a few others shook their heads or looked away. After pressing the button, a panel opened and a button with the number thirteen became available. I pressed that and when the wall next to the elevator opened, I was startled, but managed to not show it. Clara not so much.

We stepped inside and it closed, then started to go down.

"Whoa, what? I thought we would be going up?" Clara gasped as she grabbed a bar on the wall to steady her.

I could help but huff a laugh. "Seems like whoever this person is, they took being a part of the underground literally."

She glared at me. "I see you can still joke. I assume all this is quite normal for you though."

"To a point, yes. Our headquarters weren't quite so flashy. The one in charge of our finances was very stingy with our income." I wasn't sharing names, and information like this wasn't really a betrayal of our sect yet.

An intercom cut into our conversation. "From what I've heard, you haven't really been a part of things for some time though. Now what is that about? Plus your father got himself caught. Damn fool was way in over his head and just took the illusions that were given to him. Can't say I blame you though, really. I'm glad you left that particular group. Why your father didn't send you south to me I can't understand."

The elevator finally stopped its decent and opened. In front of us stood a very short skeleton. He was about the size of a child, but from how he was dressed and certain marks that could have been easily overlooked, it was obvious that he was much older than myself. I just stood there staring and taking him in. This was the great Boss that I had to be wary of and that had summoned me?

He held out a hand. "Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" he asked.

"Oh, right. Sorry sir." I stepped forward and grasped his hand firmly in mine, only to jump as the whoopee cushion in his hand was flattened with my firm hold. Behind me I heard Clara squeak then smother a chuckle.

He grinned widely. "Come in you two. We had some items of business to discuss. Unfortunately most are quite unpleasant." He made his way over to a small bar that was built into the wall and poured himself a glass. "Would either of you like a drink?" he offered, holding up the decanter he held.

"No thank you sir. We are underage." I declined.

"Pfft, nonsense. If you can risk your life on the streets or run your own business then you are more than responsible enough to imbibe, but I won't push you to do so." He set the jar down. "Now, onto business." He sat behind a huge desk that dominated the opposite end of the room. We still stood in front of the elevator. "Please seat yourselves. I don't know how long this will take." He waved at two chairs that sat facing his desk.

I made my way over to one and could hear her following behind me. She settled on the edge of the other one. Her uncomfortability and tenseness was easily read.

"Relax kiddo. I have no gripe with either of you." His words were directed at Clara, but I found myself relaxing all the same. He turned to me. "Now, Gaster is it?"

"Junior sir." I amended for him.

"Well obviously. Gaster Sr. was my son." He paused for a second and then cracked a smile at my disbelieving look as I once again took in his short stature. "He got his height from his mother, may she rest in peace. As I was saying though, I would like you to tell my about yourself. My son was not very forthcoming with details about you in the one or two letters I received from him shortly after your birth. I'm sad to say that he hasn't really spoken with me for the past sixteen years or so." He looked down, spinning the ice in his glass before he set it down and sighed. "Please tell me everything you remember of your life and tell me what kind of father and man my son became." He truly looked heartbroken.

It then caught my gaze. A picture frame on his desk that showed a younger him, a beautiful human woman, and what looked like a teen version of my father. I reached uncertainly, but when he nodded, I took it and examined it. The younger version of the skeleton in front of me looked happy, my father looked only slightly less grim, but he had none of the anger that had adorned his features for the last few years that I knew him. As I stared at the picture, picking out and memorizing every detail, I once more told my tale, as I had told it to Clara, leaving out nothing. If I had looked up during my telling I would have seen that a dark scowl had overtaken my audience's face. I only saw it when I finished my tale and looked up, grip tight on the frame.

"I am sorry my boy. I did not raise him to be like that. I can only assume that something changed him."

"E-Excuse me sir?" Clara cut in. He looked to her inquiringly. "Sir, I can tell you that he was not like that for all of… of Echo's childhood." She stuttered as she forced herself to use the name I had given her to use for me. He looked at me speculatively at the odd name, but let her continue. "When the both of us were very young, I can recall that Mr. Sans was very warm-hearted toward his son. I believe that it was only in the years after my mother and I moved away that he began to change. I can't say why he would have changed, or why Echo can't remember beyond nine or ten years ago. I believe that whatever cause the change in Mr. Sans had to have happened around then as that was when I stopped receiving letters from Echo. None of his letters ever mentioned a change in his father. If anything, they always spoke of him in a fond light." She clasped her hands in her lap, looking down at them.

Where his face had been dark before, now it was contemplative. He turned to look at me. "You honestly have no recollection from you're younger years?"

"No sir. Occasionally I'll get a sense of de ja vu like when I first heard Clara's name, but that we were friends, I can't remember. I don't remember these letters I supposedly wrote. I think I remember a friend, but it is like trying to think through a fog. I suppose I may have blocked it out for one reason or another." I explained.

"Hmmm, well, for one you can stop calling me sir. My name is Sans. I am the first of our line. It is not common knowledge, but our particular species of monster is rather long lived or they used to be. It seems each generation is weaker in magic and shorter in life span. On another note, I don't think it's that you blocked out your memories. From how you describe it, it is more likely that you had a block placed on your mind for some reason. It may lift eventually, but beyond that I'm not sure I can help. Perhaps my brother can help. I'll introduce you to him later."

"Wait, I have more family?" I asked, disbelieving.

"Not much in the way of blood, but never forget son, the entirety of the mafia will be your family. You can walk away from family, but family will not leave you." He said.

"Yeah," I laughed scornfully. "I've seen how they stick by you when you are at your worst and how they just can't leave enough be." I didn't hide the sneer as I complained about the summons to come here.

"I can understand your distaste for us because of how our branch in the Big Apple treated you, but let me assure you, they have been misguided for quite some time. Your tale is the worst we have heard yet, and believe me when I say that it will be investigated and we will work to correct the situation. We are so much more than some random drug cartel. We don't only deal in the dark my boy, we help support those on the streets. We are the family that keeps everyone connected one way or another."

I just glared at him. Clara for her part looked nervously between us.

"Well, I didn't call you all the way down here to chat up the past, though I am glad I finally got to meet you. I must admit that even here, in our heart, things are not as I would like. I had you bring young Clara with you due to her indirect ties with our larger corporation."

Here she interjected. "Why do you both think that I am somehow wrapped up in all this? My family has nothing to do with this sort of activity! We have always followed the laws. We are not criminals!" in her indignation, she had planted her hands on his desk and stood to yell down at the both of us.

"My dear, as I was just explaining to, ah, Echo you called him? Yes? Well as I was saying, not all we do is involved in criminal activity. We are also the owners of some of the largest gambling houses, legal brothels, and believe it or not, medical research facilities. We also have many holds in the law."

Her eyes went wide when he mentioned that the medical research. "Then my father?"

"That is correct. Both your father and your mother work in industries that are owned by my branch, and if I may add, they are both very high up on the ladder. A few more promotions and they might have even been inducted to our society. Your father was offered such a promotion, but turned it down. My second in command had become a bit too pushy on bringing in new blood and now he has stepped over his bounds. Unfortunately I do not have the means to broach the topic on my own. I was hoping I may be able to bring you in to help as you have been absent for such a long time and therefore do not have a name. As for you my dear," he turns to Clara, "I felt it necessary to bring you in on this due to the connection you have to all this. I fear it goes back to Gaster Sr. Many of my leads suggest he had a hand in all this. I understand that you both have reasons for not wanting to be part of our organization, but I must ask this of you."

Clara looked at me. She looked both scared and determined at the same time. I knew before asking that she would do anything to get her father back. She likely was not too happy about being proven wrong on the fact that she did indeed have ties to the mafia though.

Seeing as she was the only tie I currently had to my past, I could not see letting her go. "I will stand by you." I told her. I may not have actually gotten her caught up in it, but if she was going to look for her father, she would need help navigating the dark. I knew how to help her there.

She nodded, then turned to Sans. "I want to find my father. I don't like finding out that I will be a part of the mafia, but I can't just leave my family and with how you make it sound, I can't exactly run from it anyway. Just like bonehead here, I'm locked in."

"Excellent. I'll have you dropped off with your mother for now then. I will reach out to you via a messenger when we have a lead that you can help with. Please feel free to enlighten you mother about all this. Once we get all this taken care of, we will see that your parents either get full promotions or proper protection from those who would wish to put them in the positions they have now found themselves. If you need to reach me before then, you can reach me at this number." He slid a piece of paper across the desk to me.

I typed the number into my phone, then passed it to Clara. She looked like she would rather burn it, but finally relented and put it into her phone.

"Now I have a question." I sat forward. "You mentioned that each generation of us were weaker than the last. I am much more powerful in my magic than my father was. Since he refused to have me taught as I explained earlier, that magic is now very volatile. Clara is trying to teach me. Can you possibly give me any pointers?"

"Remove your inhibitors and let me see what you have. I can feel their suppression, don't look so surprised." He laughed at me.

I slid off the ring and slipped it into my pocket, then turned away for a moment to remove the piercing. I had found that others found it disconcerting to watch me mess with the piece. With both pieces removed I looked to him for further instruction.

He walked around his desk and looked at my hands. "Take these off." He waved at my gloves. Once I had, he took my hands in his. "Now summon something. It doesn't have to be big. I just need to feel how you channel it."

I took a breath, then focused on the air between us, a specific spot. With another breath, I slowly allowed a miniscule amount of my magic free until I felt a faint warmth in front of me. I then held back the remainder. When I opened my eyes, I saw an orb of fire floating between our joined hands. It glowed with three colors this time. There were white, sapphire, and yellow flames flickering inside and throughout the orb.

"Now dismiss it." He ordered.

With a short, sharp exhale I closed the focus point.

He released my hands then rubbed his own. "You are definitely very powerful. Your control is next to nonexistent though. I'm surprised it took this long for you to break those inhibitors your father made you wear. These ones you are using now likely have a different type of spell or you would have shattered them the second you touched them. Those colors though, that is truly a rare phenomenon."

"What do you mean? We thought it was just due my magic not having been able to settle." I asked.

"No, I can confirm that you magic has settled. It still has a lot of room to grow, and will continue to grow, but it has definitely settled. Those colors are not your personality colors. Those are your emotions. That is why your magic is so much stronger than anything your father ever came across. I myself have only read about it. Your strength comes from your emotions. The very heart of magic. I can't help you very much. Listen to your tutor and let's hope you both live long enough to see how strong you can become. Now off with the both of you. I have another meeting shortly. A cab will be waiting for you at the entrance. Get some rest and come back tomorrow. We will arrange a proper greeting where you can meet our people and your family here in Phoenix. Now shoo." He swatted us playfully back toward the elevator. When we got back to the lobby, the windows were dark. We had been underground for several hours and the lobby was empty. When we stepped outside there was indeed a cab waiting for us. This one had a young woman in a purple stripped shirt.

"The Cloud residence, right?" she asked in a chipper voice.

"That's right." I answered.

"Alright then. Climb right in. We'll be there in a jiffy."

We climbed in and got settled. "You should probably let your mom know we will be there shortly." I told Clara. I felt a bit more at ease now that we were out of the headquarters, though my new knowledge weighed heavily on my mind.

"Right." She pulled out her phone, then halfway through writing the message, she remembered something. "Um, driver? What happened to our luggage?"

"Oh, call me Frisk. Your stuff is all in the trunk. No worries. I made sure that Chara didn't knick anything." She was humming to a quiet upbeat tune on the radio.

"Chara? Is that the name of our driver from before?" she asked even as she went back to typing her message.

"Yep, that's right. He was in a surprisingly good mood today. I'm guessing you two didn't fight? He always instigates fights, but hates taking care of the cleanup later. Since he had an easy morning, I got stuck with the cleanup, so he was relatively happy this afternoon."

"Oh, okay then. He definitely didn't seem happy to be driving us, but if you say that he was in a good mood, then maybe he was."

The rest of the ride was quiet except for the quiet beat of the music. It took about another hour to navigate the city and get to the other side. The house was small, but not poor. It looked to be a sort of townhouse.

"Here we are. If you need a lift anywhere, just use this card." She passed us both a ride pass and winked.

"Thank you. Have a safe evening." I bid her and we both stepped out and I started unloading our stuff from the trunk.

Clara ran up the walk and was caught by her mother in a hug. Apparently her mother had come out when the cab had pulled up.

Now to fill her mother in on all this. Oh happy joy.


	9. Dummy Attacks

Chapter 9 –

As I pulled the last of our luggage out of the cab's trunk and slammed it shut I could hear Clara and her mom talking between themselves. Frisk gave me thumbs up through the back window and drove off. I watched until she turned a corner and had to turn my attention to my present situation. Seeing as we were in Arizona, it was much warmer and I wasn't wearing my coat, which left my skull open to scrutiny. One glance at the girls showed they were both looking at me. Clara looked a bit sympathetic while her mom looked like she couldn't believe her eyes. Great, just what I needed, a pity party. I bent down to grab mine and Clara's suitcases, but as I stood back up I was hit with a jasmine scented body making me stagger back a step.

"Oh honey, how we've missed you. Come in, please." Clara's mom stepped back and proceeded to grab two of the smaller bags and then took the handle of Clara's suitcase from me and walked up the sidewalk chattering nonstop. "You must tell me everything that has happened. I want to hear it all. You had to have had at least a few girlfriends." She chattered on. This was the woman who was supposedly scared for her husband who had been absent for days already? She seemed pretty chipper or was that just a façade.

Shaking my head, I grabbed my own luggage and followed her, not saying a word as she started to ramble about memories she had about us being kids and of how she missed my father. Once we were inside, I shot a glance at Clara and she nodded and somehow knew that we would need privacy. Maybe she was catching on. A shame but necessary.

She started moving around the house, closing curtains and I closed the front door behind me. Her mother was oblivious until the front curtains, the last ones in the house were pulled shut.

"Clara, what are you doing? We always leave the curtains open to let the cool air in. It's good for the mind and helps keep the house comfortable." She complained confused.

Hip jutting out one way and her back to the curtains with a scowl on her face, she looked her mother straight in the face and said exactly what I had been thinking. "What is really going on Mom? You message me that Dad has been gone for _days_ and we show up unannounced essentially, yet you seem completely unfazed." Her dark gaze was enough to scare most anyone. I was glad I didn't have to be the one to breach that elephant in the room.

Her mother looked startled for a moment before her whole expression shattered and she seemed to crumble in on herself. "The men I messaged you about. They came again today and told me that you father is safe for now. They said that so long as I cooperated, no harm would come to him. I don't know what they want. And then I get a message from you saying you are in Phoenix. You only just left, I don't know whether to be relieved you are safe or worried for your safety now that you're back or to worry something happened back in New York." She was crying as she tried to explain. It had all been a brave face.

Looking back to Clara, I could see her face had softened back to it's normal look. "Mom, it's gonna be alright. I…"

Before she could finish I cut in. " Don't lie to her Clara, and don't offer false hope. You won't make it in the dark if you do. It just sets you up to break worse later."

Her mother, who had started to look a bit better looked at me startled, then back to her daughter. Clara for her part, was now glaring at me. I matched her glare easily. She broke first and with a huff threw her hands up and marched over to a close settee and plopped down. She was rightfully angry, but that's want going to change the reality of the situation.

I looked back to her mom. "Mrs. Cloud, this may be hard to take in, your daughter certainly didn't take it easy, but you husband has been taken by the largest gang in the country and we don't know why. We are here to try to get him back as well as to help right the order of power within the gang." I explained straight out.

"You couldn't find a better way to break that?" Clara was suddenly standing again and shouting at me.

"It's the truth." I snapped back. A look of fear flitted across her features before she corrected them. I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

"You never put your inhibitors back on. Please dismiss your magic right now." Her eyes never left me.

I held her gaze for a moment more before glancing at her mother who was white faced and then at my own hands. My hands, arms, and shoulders were alight with dangerous looking green magic flames laced with black. It took effort, but I slowly shoved the magic down and away. Digging in my pocket, I tried to pull out the inhibitors, but all I got was a few gems and some dust. "Well shit." I swore.

"What's that?" asked Mrs. Cloud, now that the danger seemed to have passed, for the moment.

"They were my inhibitors." I sighed and shoved the stones back on my pocket. Sans had said that I was lucky they hadn't broken yet. Guess I'm out again.

Clara noticeably paled, but her mom just looked confused.

"Do you want me to explain everything to her or are you going to? We can't afford for her to be ignorant anymore and even if you try to protect her, they are going to look to her soon anyway. Remember they said they were looking to promote both your parents."

Clara just glared at the floor. "I don't like any of this." Was all she muttered.

I just pinched the ridge above my nasal cavity and sighed. A habit I had picked up from Lucy.

"A promotion? Who are _they_?"

Seeing that Clara wasn't forthcoming with information right now, I cast around for a place to sit and chose a bar stool that was near a window, shifting a few books off it first. "Mrs. Cloud,"

"Jenny." She interrupted. "Please call me Jenny."

Nodding, I restarted. "Jenny, since you left New York a lot has happened there. First thing you should know is that my father, Gaster Sr., has been incarcerated, and I have been living on the streets for literally years. At some point, the man you and Clara remember disappeared. He became brutal and controlling. He was part of the New York mafia, and by relation, I am as well. I have tried to leave it behind to no avail."

Her expression ranged from disbelief to horror as understanding of what I was about to relay dawned upon her.

"Shortly after meeting your daughter again in New York, we received a message that told us to come down here. Upon arrival she got your message and we were taken to meet the higher-ups of the mafia in this city. These two incidents are related, I'm sorry to say. Your husband was offered a promotion recently, but it came with strings and he was likely told about them. He refused the promotion and now he knows too much. The mafia overstepped their bounds by trying to recruit him and now they are likely trying to force him to join them. I was called down due to my familial connections to the mafia to try and help straighten things out, she was called down because it involves her family and if he and you accept the promotions, she will become entangled in this as well. This is bigger than any of us."

Our eyes never broke contact and I could see her putting pieces together and puzzling over everything. I gave her time to digest it all. Getting introduced to the underground was never easy. "So you're telling me that if he had just accepted the promotion, he would be home right now and you two would still be up in New York, but he would be a part of a criminal organization? How do you go from a medical position to mafia with a promotion?" She finally asked confused.

I dropped my head into my hands in defeat and missed the faint smile Clara shot me for my action. What was wrong with these women. I tell them they are mixed up in the mafia and they take it in stride and ask the complete opposite questions of what I would ever expect. Maybe they _belong_ in the mafia!

"Pretty much, yeah." Clara answered her mother, "And apparently they own like, all the big corporations and about half the city. According to his grandfather they don't only do criminal activity, but a big contributors in helping those in need, at least in this city. In New York things are a lot darker and more along the stereotypical end of things." She sounded a bit depressed, but at least she was accepting it now.

"Can't say I'm surprised." Jenny replied, causing me to turn my head slightly to look at her through one of my palms. "The higher ups always kept information on promotions above a certain level pretty hush hush. Figures that they would have some big secret to keep." Clapping her hands on her legs, she levered herself up and started toward another room in the house. "Anyone want anything to drink?"

Clara got up as well and followed, saying she'd like some juice if they had any. I seconded the motion and after a moment, got to my feet and followed as well.

"So was that everything, or was there more to your story?" Jenny asked after pouring all the drinks and putting the juice back in the fridge. She even added ice to all the glasses.

Bless this woman. I was getting hot. I was about to say that was all but Clara cut in before me.

"Well, there is the small bit of how I managed to meet him so quickly. Still dark, but a bit amusing as well." she offered with a laugh.

"If we are getting into lighter subjects, maybe we can open the drapes again then? It is gettting a bit stuffy in here" Jenny asked. She clearly wasn't a big fan of the dark.

"Sure." Clara said with a shrug.

I did my part in helping with reopening the curtains in the front room. They were the highest ones and the girls were shorter than me so it was only fair. Shortly we were all seated back in the living room and with a window open in the front of the house and a few open in the back, a wind-tunnel effect was created, making a nice breeze that helped make the heat a bit more bearable.

Clara explained about the small building she had managed to lease and how business had not been too hard to pick up since she had picked an area where there were not too many other shops that offered services like hers. Then some tall dark stranger showed up, the very first person who had come by for magical interest and it just ended up being the one she had gone looking for. She explained about what my situation had been and then started explaining about stuff I had no clue on. A lot of magic theory I think. Her mother seemed to understand what she was saying and looked at me in interest more than once, but I just kept sipping my juice and trying to make sense of what she was saying. Not exactly easy with all the jargon she kept spouting.

Without warning and making us all jump, my phone went off. I glanced at the number and the Caller ID said it was Sans. "Hello? What's up?" I asked cautiously. I hadn't expected to hear from him so soon, but it was about the time that the darker side of the mafia got active.

"You have some inbound not-so-friendlies. Thought I'd give you a head's up. That subordinate I mentioned earlier caught wind that I brought some help in. Deal with them as you see fit, but please don't raise a fuss if you can avoid it." With that he hung up. The call was just short enough to avoid being tracked.

I looked up an met the eyes of the two women. "We have company." Clara looked puzzled, but Jenny went pale. Something told me this wasn't the first time that _company_ had come calling on her. I looked directly to Clara, " _He_ wants me to deal with them. By doing that, it will be a sure sign of who we are sided with and may make things harder in the long run. I'm also going to have to use magic. By the sound of it, there is going to be a lot of them."

"Wait, you mean that the mafia is _attacking us?!_ " Now Clara paled. That was more a proper reaction. "I am so tired of them interfering already!" Or not, she had paled in rage, not fear. These chicks were nuts.

"As my teacher, do I have your permission to use my magic? I'm gonna need it and I can already tell you that my control is not going to be fine point," I asked more out of propriety than actual caring. I was going to use it either way.

Clara looked at me and for a moment I actually thought she was going to say no, then her face softened. "Try not to kill them, okay?"

"I won't try to kill them, how does that sound?" I countered.

Bouncing her head side to side, she finally nodded as she came to the same conclusion as I had that that was about as good a compromise as we could get right now with my magic being mostly out of control. "Good enough."

"Right. So for now, we don't do anything rash, but I can almost guarantee that this won't end well, but for security and appearance, we are going to have to try and handle this civilly. They will likely come up to the door like good businessmen and ask to chat. They may not even know yet that we are here, they just know we are in the city somewhere." I turn to look at Jenny. "When they come and knock on the door, I know it may be hard, well, maybe not, you are a tough woman like your daughter, but you are going to have to invite them in. Once they are inside they will try to convince you to work with them. We will be around to help. I saw a closet behind the door, I'll stay in there until they come in. Your daughter being here shouldn't be a problem, so she could probably stay anywhere but the people coming may be more defensive if there is someone here they are not expecting, so maybe she should stay in the kitchen until they get settled at least."

Jenny was starting to look slightly worried and Clara was looking angrier by the second, but both were tempered with determination. Pushing herself back up, Jenny waved for me to follow her and I assumed she meant to stash me now, which wouldn't be a bad idea since we didn't know when they would be coming, only that they were on their way. Once we were about two rooms away though, she spun and nearly put me to the wall. If I hadn't reacted, she might have actually broke my collar. As it were, we were suddenly face to face, me holding her arm three-quarter way through a swing and her glaring daggers into my sockets. We stood like that for several moments, frozen and waiting for the other to submit. I nodded just slightly, not breaking eye contact, but enough to show I acknowledge her strength. We released each other at the same time and she stepped back to lean against the opposite hallway wall.

"We cool?" I asked warily. Having my head bashed in once was enough for me. I wasn't looking to repeat the experience again.

In a few seconds her face went from determined to looking old and worn, the face of someone who was tired and ready to give up. "Protect Clara. Please, whatever you do, protect her." she told me quietly.

"I fully plan to. She didn't mention it, but I will. I have no recollection of our time together when we were younger. Everything I am doing and have done up to this point today is based on what I have come to know since meeting her two weeks ago." I paused, letting her absorb that and understand what I was saying before continuing. "I also plan to protect you and to get her father back. She needs you both." That last line broke her and she started to tear up. Unfortunately at the same time I heard a car door slam out on the street.

Looking outside through a pane of glass in the door I could make out at least five identical cars on the street. That wasn't conspicuous at all, especially when people got out of all of them at once and all moved toward the house in unison. There was no hesitation between them, no conversation, no gathering or comradery. Something was very wrong.

"Jenny." I kept my voice low but the warning tone in my voice certainly got her attention and I felt her lean into me as she also tried to look out the window. I felt her stiffen as they all got closer.

"They don't look natural." she whispered.

"No, they don't. I suggest we move. I don't think they are going to listen to anything we might say." I pulled back slowly from the door and guided her down the hall. Once we were clear of the hall I was reminded that we had opened all the curtains again, and so was she. With the lights on in the house and all the curtains open, our movements would be easily tracked.

The sound of breaking glass cut the silence like a knife followed by a shriek from the back of the house. Neither Jenny nor I hesitated, we dashed through to get to Clara. A quick glance behind me noted that the encroaching _things_ had picked up speed.

"Clara?" I yelled. "Clara, are you alright?" I caught a doorway and spun into the kitchen expecting the worse and my magic already summoned for a fight. Instead I ran into Jenny, tripped, and landed in a puddle of juice and glass. "What the fuck?"

"Uh, are you guys okay?" Clara was really confused. "I just dropped my glass and it startled me. Sorry?"

Groaning I pushed myself up and heard Jenny explaining to her daughter the situation even as heavy banging was heard on the front door. "Tell me this place has a back way out." I begged.

"Yeah, but it is blocked. We never use it so there is a bunch of stuff stored on both sides of the door." Jenny explained, white-faced.

"Just great." I muttered to myself. "Guess I should go say hi to the guests then." More banging was heard, from the force of it, I didn't think that the door was going to hold up much longer. I let my magic roll over me. It felt controlled at the moment. It wasn't fighting me, but I wasn't paying attention to that. These things were threatening my friend and teacher. Because of all the problems they were causing I was being forced to come back into the underground and leave the light that I was finally starting to get a purchase in. I was pissed.

I was just about to open the door when it finally gave and what looked like sets of rockets came flying through, making mini explosions as they blew up against the wall beyond it. They seriously had been using explosives? That. Was. It. I stepped out from behind the door frame, flicking on the front lawn light beside the door flooding light over our attackers. They looked like manikins. Poorly made ones at that. "Bad idea. You just messed with the wrong family." I snarled.

Their faces momentarily looked startled and unsure, but then they set up for another barrage.

Before they could loose them though, I released my own explosions behind each of them, sending them all flying. They never saw the magic form as it was completely black now and had formed in the shadows behind them. The second the bursts went off, the entire block went dark. I was thankful for the clear night and nearly full moon. It clearly illuminated the yard for me and allowed me to see everyone. They were down for the time being, but for how long I wasn't sure.

"Clara, does your phone still work?" I called, not taking my eyes off our downed assailants.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah it does." She called as she and her mom started to navigate to the front of the house using their flashlights on their phones.

"Good, call that cabbie. We need to move. I don't care where right now, but we can't stay here." I called back. I looked over my shoulder for them when I heard movement. At just that moment they turned into the hall and I nearly got blinded. If it weren't for my magic being so thick I probably would have.

"Uh, sure...you okay G?" she asked, voice getting shaky.

"No, no I am not." I growled. Looking out to the yard I saw two of the manikins starting to try and get up. I flicked two more spheres into existence beside them and set them off. Maybe they were just a bit stronger cause I could actually feel the wind from their detonation.

Seconds later I heard the clicking of her typing on the phone and began to relax a little. We could make it out of this. As I relaxed just a bit, my magic began to fade from black to green laced with a few streaks of sapphire occasionally racing through it. It also began to let off more light with the change in color. I could now tell that both my arms were completely encased in the magic and wisps were all over the yard and along the hall. There was even one between the girls.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you unless I want it to." I let them know as they both froze and stared at it. Seeing them freeze up actually made me smile and laugh a little inside as I remembered going through something similar with Henry not too long ago. The green bled into a purple as I remembered him tripping on air, falling over the coffee table, and practically landing on my lap, startling me so much my magic activated and whips like these appeared all over, including one on top of his head.

"It really does change colors." Breathed Jenny as if we weren't in a weird peril.

"Uh, Clara? Cab? Please?" I asked as I glanced back at the yard and saw a few of the manikins starting to come to again. I really didn't want to dust anybody and the fact that they could summon magic like they had before told me they were just another kind of monster, which meant that they would be pretty easy to Dust if I wasn't careful.

"Oh, right." The dial tone, followed by a ringer was heard down the hall as I focused and set up some smaller explosives next to the rising figures in the yard. In the distance I saw a few more lights go out as I wiped out a few more blocks. Whoops.

"Uh, is Frisk available? We were told to call this number for a cab?" I heard Clara asking on the phone behind me.

I glanced down the hall once more to check on the girls and noticed our luggage was still sitting in the hall. Good, maybe we would be able to grab that before we left, but Jenny didn't have anything packed that I knew of. "Jen...if you have anything you will need, grab it now." I yelled down to her.

"Oh, right. I should have a case in the closet behind you." She called back.

Seriously, why were these people ready to move on a moments notice when the lived here?

"Got it! Cab is already on the way. You're grandfather apparently sent one." Clara shouted as I let off another set of mini explosions. At the same time a small cab screeched around the corner.

It was like something out of a crappy movie if I were honest. Not taking too much time to think, I reached into the closet behind me and grabbed the suitcase in there, yelling at the girls to grab the stuff in the hall and move. We booked it across the yard and thankfully the cabbie already had the trunk popped so we whipped everything in real quick before piling into the car. I could see our assailants getting up and racing to their own cars. Taking a steadying breath, I set up and detonated spheres within the engines of each of their cars...I may have blown an extra car as well. Oops. We didn't stick around to find out. Dark houses blew by as our driver floored it and took us uptown.

"Why is it so dark? How far did that power outage spread and I wonder what caused it." Jenny tried to fill the silence with small talk.

Seeing as I was sitting between both her and Clara, they both felt me flinch.

"Echo, how much did you knock out?" Clara sounded worried.

"Echo? Wait, _he_ knocked out the power? Magic is only supposed to have a minor interference with electricity. How'd he knock out this much power?" By now we had gone several blocks and still no sign of power in the streets.

"I wanna say maybe half the city? Maybe less, I hope." I hunched in on myself, conscious of the fact that I had messed up again, but it was necessary this time at least. Then my phone went off. There was a scramble to dig it out of my back pocket, and a lot of accidental elbow digs as everyone tried to shift out of the way. Finally I got it out just before it went to voicemail. "H-hello." I yelped into it as we hit a pothole the cabbie hadn't seen and Clara's elbow slammed my half-missing rib.

"I thought I told you not to raise a fuss! Over half the city is dark. What did you do, wipe out a city block?" Sans sounded annoyed but also like he was laughing. What the heck was with these people. Everyone was weird.

"No, I just set off a few small explosions, mini firecrackers more or less and blew up a few cars. I told you I didn't have much control." I snapped back.

"Okay, okay. You got out of there though, right?" He checked.

"Yeah, the cab you sent couldn't have shown up at a better time." I assured him. "Where is it taking us?"

Silence. "I didn't send a cab."

"Okay, we will see you there then." I said easily.

"Be careful. If you can get to my hotel, I'll do what I can to shelter you." He instructed.

"Right. Thanks. Talk to you later." I ended the call and knocked on the glass in front of us. "Yo, you work for the second, right?

I heard Clara take a sharp breath even as the cabbie nodded. "Yeah. If he's got your back then you are in pretty good hands. I had no clue I'd be driving into a full on fight though. That was pretty cool. I'm pretty new to all of this and that was my first time seeing magic. Way awesome dude." He was chatterbox, definitely new.

"Any chance I could sway you to drop by somewhere else first? I need to have a word with someone else, the big boss. I was just on the phone with him." I figured I could try to pull power over power. This kid seemed gullible enough.

"Sure, the radisson, right? That'll be easy enough." They nodded and I relaxed. Easy as pie.

I smiled, feeling a bit unstable as my adrenaline died down and offered a hand to each of the girls. The returned it and grasped my hands, each of us reassuring the other. I didn't even notice when I passed out.


End file.
